Eurolanche

Wild take big lead, hold off Avalanche

One year after missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Minnesota Wild have set their sights on first place in the Northwest Division.

The Wild defeated the slumping Colorado Avalanche, 6-4, Saturday at Pepsi Center to complete a sweep of the home-and-home series and keep the pressure on the division-leading Vancouver Canucks.

The Wild have won four of their past five games and are 11-5-1 since Feb. 9. They have scored 18 goals going 3-0-1 against the Avalanche this season.

Devin Setoguchi led the Wild with two goals and an assist; Ryan Suter and Pierre-Marc Bouchard each collected a goal and an assist.

The Wild broke out to a 4-1 lead in the first period against Avalanche goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who faced 14 shots in his first home start of the season and was replaced by Semyon Varlamov to begin the second period.

The Avalanche pulled within 4-3 in the second period on goals by PA Parenteau and Gabriel Landeskog, whose score at 10:23 caused Wild coach Mike Yeo to call timeout.

The Wild regained their two-goal advantage at 12:02 when Bouchard intercepted Landeskog's cross-ice pass from the corner and beat Varlamov from the right circle.

Setoguchi and the Avalanche's Chuck Kobasew traded goals in the third period. Bouchard fed Setoguchi skating in alone on Varlamov at 10:22, and Kobasew scored at 18:07.

Parenteau scored at 2:45 of the second period when he moved through traffic into the goalmouth and slipped the puck past goalie Niklas Backstrom to make it 4-2. Landeskog scored from the slot off a pass from Matt Duchene, who regained possession after his shot was blocked by Wild defenseman Charlie Coyle.

Suter and Setoguchi scored 1:44 apart for a 2-0 Wild lead at the six-minute mark of the first period, prompting Avalanche coach Joe Sacco to call timeout. Whatever Sacco said, it didn't work, because Cal Clutterbuck scored 3:04 later with a shot from a bad angle after Dany Heatley rang one off the left post.

The Avalanche got on the board at 14:11 on a goal by John Mitchell, who scored from near the right-wing boards, but the Wild answered at 17:18 after Heatley fired another shot off the left post. Kyle Brodziak, skating to the net from the right side, watched the puck skip off his skate before he knocked it out of the air and behind Giguere.

Suter opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 4:16 with a one-timer from the right point. Setoguchi followed from the slot at the six-minute mark, beating Giguere to the glove side while using Avalanche defenseman Matt Hunwick as a screen.

The Avalanche have been outscored 15-6 in a three-game losing streak.

-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --