The Minnesota Wild Topple the Colorado Avalanche
An amazing performance was given by goalie Jose Theodore, former star of the Avalanche, now a Minnesota Wild, and one of the best at what he does. He made 38 saves to topple the already crippled Colorado Avalanche, 4-3, Thursday night at the Pepsi Center
in Denver. The Wild have won 6 of their past seven games, moving themselves up from the 10th position to the 8th in the highly competitive Western Conference. Certainly all eyes are on the WC this season as many teams are starting to
come into play-off mode.
The Avalanche seems to have stopped.
Colorado has been having a rough season going into the All-Star Break and coming out of it. They have lost four out of five games, and the fact that all these were played at home adds insult to injury. Currently they’ve fallen to the 12th spot
from the 11th and are 3 points behind the Wild.
Minnesota went in strong!
Full control was taken over the first period by the Wild who scored two goals and were 2-0 at the end of the first 20 minutes. Kyle Brodziak got his 10th goal of the season within 33 seconds, while Andrew Brunette, who scored twice in the match,
wrapped the puck around the net nearly a half minute later. Both teams played hard but seemed to be unable to penetrate through the remaining 19 minutes.
Right Wing Milan Hejduk also scored twice for the Avalanche in the second and third period. Colorado had a great chance to tie it or even take the lead in the third when they were awarded a power play, but unfortunately they could only land a single one
into the net.
Third period slipped out of Colorado’s hands
Other than the power play, the Wild seemed vulnerable, the Avalanche shot one into the net within 45 seconds making them only one goal shy of tying it, but all hopes were lost when Wild’s Pierre-Marc Bouchard back-handed one lighting up the red buzzer with
a little less than 8 minutes remaining. Chris Stewart added the last of the night with a desperate 10 seconds left but was futile.
With their young centre, Ryan O’Reily, out for 6 games now due to a shoulder injury, the Avalanche can’t seem to hold themselves together. This game has tied the Minnesota and Colorado 2-2 this season with two more in the season left.
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