Cale Makar scored twice in the third period, Nazem Kadri also had a goal in the third, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild 9-6 in a high-scoring Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series on Sunday night in Denver.
Makar added an assist, Devon Toews had a goal and three assists, Nathan MacKinnon added a goal and two assists, Artturi Lehkonen and Sam Malinski each contributed a goal and an assist, and Nick Blankenburg and Jack Drury also scored for Colorado.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night in Denver.
Quinn Hughes had a goal and two assists, and Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Johansson, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan Hartman and Marcus Foligno scored for Minnesota, which rallied from down 3-0 early to take a brief lead late in the second period.
The game was tied 5-all when Makar, who shook off an early injury, got a pass from MacKinnon in the right circle and wristed a shot high past Jesper Wallstedt at 3:21. Kadri padded the lead at 5:43 of the third with a breakaway goal.
“I feel like I was in a pretty good scoring area,” Kadri said. “Ross (Colton) made a nice pass to spring me on the half breakaway. Been watching a lot of this goaltender, so picked my spot, and definitely picked it properly.”
Wallstedt turned away 34 of 42 shots in the game.
Zuccarello gave the Wild life when the puck went off his leg and in at 16:01, but Makar answered at 17:06. MacKinnon added an empty-netter to seal it.
“Score (six) goals,” Wallstedt said. “We should win a lot of the games. There was a rare night where they got (nine). Yeah, that happens. Let that go and move on.”
Martin Necas had three assists and Valeri Nichushkin contributed two assists for the Avalanche.
Scott Wedgewood had 10 of his 30 saves in the third period to make the lead stand up for Colorado
Malinski, Drury and Lehkonen scored 2:01 apart midway through the first period to give the Avalanche a 3-0 lead. Johansson and Hartman answered with goals a minute apart to cut it to 3-2.
“Not playing for a little while was a good way to get things going again,” Malinski said of Colorado’s lengthy break since its first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Kings. “I’m sure my family is really excited.”
The second period continued the scoring trend. Blankenburg scored 4:16 into the second to make it 4-2, and Tarasenko answered at 6:45 to get the Wild back in it.
Hughes tied it when his shot through a screen beat Wedgewood at 12:43 of the second, and Foligno scored a short-handed goal at 16:55 to give Minnesota a 5-4 lead.
“I’m proud of the way we kind of battled back there,” Foligno said. “I mean, it’s 3-0, it’s a great barn. They have great fans, and they can get on you. But we battled back, got some goals and absolute snipes.”
Toews tied it again when he scored at 18:04, seconds after the Wild killed off a power play.
–Field Level Media
