Wild beat Avalanche, clinch playoff spot
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Minnesota Wild.The drought is over for the Minnesota Wild, who are heading to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in five years.
Needing a win to secure the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, the Wild held off the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Saturday at the Pepsi Center.
The Wild will meet the Presidents' Trophy-winning Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round. The Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets each finished with 55 points, but Minnesota gained the postseason berth because it had two more wins than Columbus.
The Avalanche, who have missed the playoffs three years in a row, finished last in the West and 29th in the NHL standings.
Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom made a glove save against PA Parenteau with 1:39 to play in the third period after the Avalanche gained possession of a loose puck at the blue line and raced into the Minnesota end.
The Avalanche called time at that point and pulled goalie Semyon Varlamov for a sixth skater. Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored into the vacated net with 3.4 seconds to go.
The Wild broke a 1-1 tie on a power-play goal by Devin Setoguchi at 12:20 of the second period. Setoguchi had gone 14 games without a goal before he ripped a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle past Varlamov. There were 25 seconds left on Shane O'Brien's slashing penalty when Setoguchi scored.
The Avalanche had killed off 19 consecutive penalties at home, covering parts of six games.
The Avalanche thought they had taken a 2-1 lead at 4:55 of the second period when the rebound of Stefan Elliott's shot caromed into the net off the right skate of Chuck Kobasew, who didn't appear to use a distinct kicking motion. But the goal was wiped out following a lengthy review.
The Wild went on a two-man advantage that began with 9:41 left in the third period and lasted 55 seconds, but the Avalanche killed it off. Shortly after that, Varlamov robbed Jason Zucker on a clean breakaway after the puck got way from Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie.
The Wild launched the first nine shots of the game and took a 1-0 lead on Zach Parise's goal at 6:42. Mikko Koivu took a shot from along the left-wing boards and Parise poked the rebound between Varlamov's pads for his team-leading 18th goal.
Ryan O'Reilly tied the game for the Avalanche at 18:07, a little more than a minute after Varlamov made back-to-back saves from point-blank range against Matt Cullen off a pass from Bouchard, who intercepted a poor pass from John Mitchell.
O'Reilly beat Backstrom from the base of the right circle after taking a pass from Gabriel Landeskog, who was falling along the end boards when he let the puck go.
The Wild outshot the Avalanche 16-4 in the period.
Wild coach Mike Yeo stuck with Backstrom, who on Friday was pulled late in the first period after allowing three goals on five shots in Minnesota's eventual 6-1 home loss to Edmonton.
Backstrom came into the game with a 23-5-3 career record against the Avalanche. He had a 10-2-1 record in his previous 13 games in Denver, where the Wild went 11-2-2 in their previous 15 visits.
Avalanche right wing Milan Hejduk, in what could have been his final NHL game, skated on a line with Jamie McGinn and Paul Stastny. Hejduk, 37, was a healthy scratch for seven of the previous eight games. He had four goals and seven assists in 29 games this season.
The lone remaining member of the Avalanche's 2001 Stanley Cup winning team, he ranks second in franchise history in games played (1,0209), fourth in goals (375) and points (805), and fifth in assists (430).
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
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28/04/2013 - 04:18
