Avs beat Wild on MacKinnon's OT goal
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Minnesota Wild.Nathan MacKinnon scored 3:27 into overtime Saturday for his third point of the game to give the Colorado Avalanche a 4-3 win against the Minnesota Wild and a 3-2 lead in their best-of-7 Western Conference First Round series.
The Avalanche will attempt to clinch the series in Game 6 at the Xcel Energy Center on Monday (9 p.m. ET; CNBC, RDS, TSN, FS-N, ALT).
MacKinnon, who had two assists during regulation, took a shot from the left circle that beat Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper to the glove side.
The Avalanche tied the game with 1:14 remaining in the third period when PA Parenteau scored after goalie Semyon Varlamov went to the bench with 2:22 left for a sixth skater. Paul Stastny took a shot that Kuemper stopped, but Stastny slid the rebound up the slot and Parenteau put it in for his first point of the series.
Zach Parise and Kyle Brodziak scored 1:51 apart early in the third period to give the Wild a 3-2 lead.
Parise collected his first goal of the series at 4:34 after taking a cross-ice pass by Jonas Brodin. Parise shot from the left circle dot and beat Varlamov to the glove side.
Brodziak put the Wild in front for the first time at 6:25 after Avalanche forward Marc-Andre Cliche gave his stick to defenseman Jan Hejda, who had broken his. Colorado couldn't clear the zone and Brodziak put a screen shot past Varlamov after taking a pass from Dany Heatley, who had two assists.
The Wild went on a power play at 15:27 when Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for spraying Kuemper with snow, but Colorado killed it off.
The Avalanche took a 2-1 lead in the second period by sandwiching goals by Cody McLeod and Nick Holden around one by the Wild's Matt Moulson.
McLeod scored a shorthanded goal at 8:04 after the Avalanche were penalized for too many men on the ice. He knocked the puck away from Wild defenseman Ryan Suter in the neutral zone and got it to Ryan O'Reilly, who moved down left wing and fed McLeod driving to the net. McLeod redirected the puck behind Kuemper.
The Wild answered at 9:17 on Moulson's goal after another Avalanche player, defenseman Andre Benoit, broke his stick . When Max Talbot gave his stick to Benoit, Jamie McGinn gave his to Talbot. Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon took a shot from above the circles and Moulson tipped it by Varlamov.
Holden scored at 12:16 during a 4-on-4 with Minnesota's Mikko Koivu and Landeskog serving coincidental roughing minors. MacKinnon used his speed to race into the Wild zone and passed the puck back to Benoit just inside the blue line. Benoit fired a shot that was going wide when Holden deflected the puck between Kuemper's pads.
Parenteau took a shot from the right circle that hit the right post and bounced over the net at 15:40.
The Avalanche failed to convert on a power play in the first period and on two more in the second, stretching their slump to 1-for-18 with a man advantage in the series.
The Wild also went 0-for-3 on power plays and are 2-for-15 in the series.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
27/04/2014 - 07:00
