Six goals not enough as Colorado hits Wild with offensive onslaught
DENVER – The NHL playoffs are supposed to be about low-scoring, tight-checking hockey where the winner is generally the better defensive team. Apparently those rules don’t apply at high altitude. On a night where seemingly every shift produced a scoring chance, the Colorado Avalanche had the late-game offense necessary to claim Game 1 of their best-of-seven playoff series, overcoming a brief second period deficit to beat the Minnesota Wild 9-6.
The Avalanche lead 3-0 early, and were up 4-2 in the second period, but the Wild refused to go quietly, scoring two late in the first, and three in the second to take a short-lived 5-4 lead. But quick-strike goals by Cale Makar and Nazem Kadri early in the final period helped Colorado pull away. Minnesota got goals from Marcus Johansson, Ryan Hartman, Vladimir Tarasenko, Quinn Hughes, Marcus Foligno and Mats Zuccarello.
The six goals were the most ever scored by the Wild in a playoff loss. Jesper Wallstedt had 34 saves for Minnesota, which will try again in Game 2 on Tuesday night at Ball Arena. Scheduled for a 7 p.
m. Central puck drop, it will be televised by ESPN. The Avalanche, who are now 5-0 in the playoffs, got goals from eight different players, along with 30 saves by Scott Wedgewood.
The 15 goals were the most for both teams combined in a Wild playoff game. After killing Minnesota’s first power play, the Avalanche opened the scoring when defenseman Sam Malinski scored his first career playoff goal, fooling Wallstedt with a rising wrist shot from the faceoff dot. Malinski, 27, played prep hockey at Lakeville South.
Continue to the original source for the full article.