Jordan Greenway scored two goals, Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 in St. Paul, Minn., on Friday night.
Tyson Jost also scored and Marc-Andre Fleury had 27 saves for Minnesota (53-22-7, 113 points), which set a franchise record for points and victories in a season.
With the win, the Wild finished second in the Central Division and will have home-ice advantage against St. Louis in their first-round series. The Blues won all three games between the teams this season, with the final two coming in overtime.
Nazem Kadri had a goal and Pavel Francouz stopped 18 shots for the Avalanche (56-19-7, 119 points), who finished the season 1-5-1 in their last seven games.
Colorado locked up the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference on April 17 but its overtime loss to Nashville on Thursday night ended its bid for the Presidents’ Trophy. The Avalanche rested many of their regulars Friday night, including Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Valeri Nichushkin and goaltender Darcy Kuemper.
Minnesota jumped ahead quickly Friday night when Greenway’s shot from the left circle beat Francouz just inside the goal post 58 seconds into the game.
Jost made it 2-0 against his former team when he scored his eighth goal of the season at 4:12 of the first period.
Kaprizov put the Wild ahead 3-0 when his backhander trickled through Francouz and to the goal line before the goaltender knocked it out of the crease. Kaprizov quickly tapped it in at 3:46 for his team-leading 47th goal of the season.
Kadri got one back less than two minutes later off a Minnesota turnover. Mikko Rantanen stole the puck in the Wild end and sent a pass across the zone to Kadri. His shot went through Fleury and in at 5:38 for his 28th goal of the season.
Francouz came off for an extra skater and Greenway scored an empty-net goal at 19:28 of the third period for his 10th goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
