Colorado Avalanche stays hot with fifth straight over Minnesota Wild 4-2 -NHL Update
Colorado is continuing its climb up the ranks of the Western Conference as the Avalanche dominated the second place, Minnesota Wild, 4-2, on Monday night, December 26, 2011, at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, for its fifth
straight of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season.
The Avalanche were facing a tough time during last month has they failed to win a single back-to-back game, but now, it seems that they have finally pointed out their weaknesses and at the same time eliminated them to take down some big name opponents.
Pierre-Marc Bouchard kicked off the scoring for his seventh of the season on a Colorado penalty nearly midway through the opening period to put Minnesota ahead by one but the second period brought some luck for the Avalanche, which were looking to make a
comeback.
Cody McLeod was awarded a 10 minute game misconduct and five minute major penalty for checking Minnesota defenseman, Jared Spurgeon, from behind, which forced the over 19,000 crowd to boo at the Avalanche, potentially resulting in a suspension by the NHL
in the upcoming days.
"I didn't like the hit one bit", Wild coach, Mike Yeo, said. "On top of that, it was something that looked like they were targeting him. They hit him from behind two shifts before that. Twice in five minutes into the game he gets hit from behind? That one
was ugly".
Ryan O'Reilly did not let the crowd put them down as he equalised the match midway through the second on their third power play opportunity of the night. Cal Clutterbuck fought and made the tie-breaker at the 12:00 mark but Gabriel Landeskog tied it once
again with two minutes remaining.
"It gave us huge momentum for the third period and that's exactly what happened", O'Reilly said. "You can feel the boys a little more excited in the room, a little more life and it transferred over to the ice".
Jan Hejda put Colorado up by one 10:20 into the third round to keep the Avalanche momentum going while T.J. Galiardi secured the contest nearly three minutes later.
Chicago keep gaining on the Wild, who still stand at second but are now five points below the Blackhawks with 45 after their seventh straight loss.
Colorado hopes for a sixth straight win against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday while Minnesota is looking forward to snap their losing streak against Nashville Predators on Wednesday.
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