Minnesota Wild at Avalanche Game 1: The Real Test Begins, Lines, Notes & How To Watch
The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche open their second-round series against the Minnesota Wild at Ball Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:10 pm MT and will be broadcast nationally on TNT. Please consider donating to the Colorado Hockey Now Playoff Travel Fund to help our beat writer provide coverage from road games in Minnesota: PAYPAL or VENMO Key Stories to Watch The Avalanche are set to play their first game in a week, and it’ll be against the No.
3 Minnesota Wild, who defeated the higher seeded No. 2 Dallas Stars in six games in the opening round. The Avs enter the matchup with four straight wins, while Minnesota won three consecutive games after trailing 2-1 to the Stars earlier in their series.
Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes are the two most recent Norris Trophy winners, and they’ll go head-to-head in what’s expected to be a highly skilled matchup between the two puck-moving defensemen. Hughes has never scored against the Avalanche in his career and has lost two of three games against Colorado since being moved to the Wild. Similar to the opening round against Los Angeles Kings goalie Anton Forsberg, the Avalanche are likely facing another goalie who started the season as the backup.
Like Scott Wedgewood, Colorado’s backup coming into 2025-26, Jesper Wallstedt has handled goaltending duties for Minnesota with Filip Gustavsson serving as the backup. Wallstedt has a . 924 save percentage in six playoff starts and Wedgewood is at .
950. I asked Jared Bednar about the number of goalies that were backups when the year started and now taking the reins in the playoffs. His response: “Now I’m not the only one open to criticism, which I really don’t give a crap about.