Minnesota Wild defeat Colorado Avalanche 3-2
Niklas Backstrom turned away 23 shots to help the Minnesota Wild edge past the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 at Xcel Energy Centre on Wednesday night.
John Madden and Martin Havlat each lit the lamp for Minnesota, who have won seven of their last nine games. Antti Miettinen also tallied a goal for the winners.
David Jones found the back of the net twice for the struggling Colorado side, which has lost five consecutive games and seven of its previous eight play-offs overall. Craig Anderson started the game in the net for the Avalanche, but was benched after giving
up three goals on 17 shots. Peter Budaj replaced him and stopped seven shots during the rest of the game.
The first period saw three goals being scored inside just 51-seconds.
Miettinen opened the scoring for Minnesota with his 10th goal of the season on a power-play, assisted by Matt Cullen and Brent Burns, with five minutes left in the opening stanza. Eleven seconds later, Jones knotted the game at 1-1 with his first goal of
the game on the ensuing shift.
Less than a minute later, Havlat restored Minnesota's lead at 2-1 with his 15th goal of the season. The move started when he controlled the puck behind the net and tried to stuff it at the left post, which was blocked. However, Havlat grabbed the puck again
and fired a wrist shot into the net on a turnaround.
Halfway through the second period, Madden gave Minnesota a two-goal edge at 3-1, as he banged a wrist shot from the right side of the slot past the goalie for his eighth goal of the campaign.
Jones struck again to bring Colorado within another goal and made it a 3-2 game just 23 seconds into the third period. From behind the net, Jones kept pushing the loose puck, which Backstrom failed to control in the crease. Jones finally connected on his
third shot and the puck sailed through several skates and sticks, popped into the air, flew over netminder's shoulder and into the net.
For the rest of the game, Minnesota played as if they were a goal down. However, the Wild managed to keep Colorado's scoring opportunities to a minimum to hold on for the win.
Minnesota's Andrew Brunette praised his team's defensive prowess after the game. He said, "Our defence has been solid the last two months and we feel very comfortable with all of our guys back there. They do a great job and we also have great goaltending."
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