Eurolanche

Wild rally to stun Avalanche

Zach Parise completed a hat trick midway through the third period, capping a four-goal rally, and the Minnesota Wild stunned the Colorado Avalanche in a season-opening 5-4 victory at Pepsi Center on Thursday.

Parise started Minnesota's four-goal third period at 5:07 and finished it with a power-play goal at 10:14, giving the Wild their first lead of the game. The go-ahead goal came when he beat Semyon Varlamov with a one-timer from just above the right circle with Gabriel Landeskog off for interference.

Parise started the rally after defenseman Matt Dumba took a shot that hit Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon. The puck came to Parise, and he beat Varlamov from the right slot.

Nino Niederreiter made it 4-3 at 7:05. Jason Zucker was behind the net when he passed to Niederreiter, who scored from between the faceoff circles.

Thomas Vanek tied the game at 9:18. Charlie Coyle got the play started when he checked Colorado's Matt Duchene off the puck. Mikael Granlund skated down left wing and passed across to Vanek for the tying goal.

The Avalanche, who were shut out four times in six preseason games, scored three times in a 5:15 span of the first period to take a 3-0 lead on power-play goals by Jarome Iginla and Erik Johnson, and an even-strength goal by Landeskog.

Iginla opened the scoring at 13:40 with his 590th NHL goal. MacKinnon passed across to Iginla in the left circle for a quick shot that went past goalie Devan Dubnyk seven seconds after Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin went off for holding.

Dubnyk, who made 19 saves, allowed four goals once in 39 starts for the Wild last season, when he was a Vezina Trophy finalist.

Johnson, who missed the final 34 games last season because of a knee injury, scored at 17:24 after Wild captain Mikko Koivu was penalized for closing his hand on the puck in front of the Avalanche net.

Defenseman Francois Beauchemin, who had three assists in his Avalanche debut after signing as a free agent July 1, passed to Johnson in the high slot for a shot with Duchene screening Dubnyk.

Landeskog scored at 18:55 to make it 3-0. Beauchemin was just inside the blue line when he shot the puck off the end boards. Landeskog retrieved the puck and poked it behind Dubnyk while standing near the left post.

The Wild's best scoring chance came at 9:43 on a clean breakaway by Parise, who shot the puck high off the left post.

The Wild outshot the Avalanche 6-0 in the first 3:08 of the second period, and Parise got them on the board at 6:55, cutting the deficit to 3-1. Granlund passed to Parise, who scored from the right hash marks.

The Avalanche answered at 8:07. Johnson took a shot from the right side that Dubnyk stopped, but John Mitchell was right in front and converted the rebound for a 4-1 lead.

-- by NHL.com --