Wild open season by routing Avalanche
Official game recap Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche.The Minnesota Wild scored four goals in the second period and fired a club-record 48 shots on goal in a 5-0 season-opening rout of the Colorado Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday.
Colorado, which the Central Division title in 2013-14 before losing to the Wild in seven games in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, had no answer for Minnesota's top line, which was on the ice for four of the five goals.
Zach Parise scored a goal and had two assists, and Jason Pominville and Mikael Granlund each posted two-point nights for the Wild, who scored four goals in a period only once all of last season. Parise finished with nine shots on goal and was plus-4. Pominville and defenseman Ryan Suter each had a goal and an assist, and Granlund had two assists.
Goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 16 shots for his third NHL shutout but was rarely tested by the Avalanche.
Pominville scored the lone goal of the first period, putting home the rebound of a Granlund shot at 14:54.
Minnesota blew the game open in a span of less than 13 minutes in the second period.
Defenseman Jared Spurgeon made it 2-0 at 4:37 with a backdoor tap-in after a brilliant pass through the crease by Parise.
Parise scored less than three minutes later, four seconds into a 4-on-4. Granlund won the faceoff in the neutral zone and pushed the puck forward to Parise, who fired from the high slot. Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov stopped the first shot, but Parise grabbed his own rebound and buried it for his first goal of the season.
Nino Niederreiter scored off a scramble at 13:21, and Suter's slapper from just inside the blue line beat Varlamov at 16:58.
Minnesota outshot Colorado 48-16, forcing Varlamov from the game after 40 minutes. He made 33 saves on 38 shots and stopped several other Grade A chances to keep the game from becoming more lopsided.
-- by Dan Myers for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
10/10/2014 - 06:00
