Avs goalie Varlamov wins career high
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Minnesota Wild.Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov had plenty to celebrate Thursday.
Varlamov signed a five-year, $29.5 million contract extension then stopped 31 shots in a 5-4 win against the Minnesota Wild at Pepsi Center.
Varlamov established a career high with his 27th win, set a franchise record with his 10th win in January, and the Avalanche solidified their third-place standing in the Central Division.
Colorado (34-14-5) finished the season series with a 4-0-1 record against fourth-place Minnesota (29-21-6) and increased its lead to nine points (73-64) with three games in hand.
The Avalanche scored three times in the second period on goals by John Mitchell, Paul Stastny and Maxime Talbot to build a 4-1 lead.
The Wild closed within 4-3 in the third period on goals by Zach Parise, who had two goals and two assists, and Mikael Granlund.
Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon scored on a breakaway to give the Avalanche a 5-3 lead with 2:25 to go, but Minnesota's Jason Pominville answered 11 seconds later.
Parise beat Varlamov with a shot by his glove at 7:47 and Granlund scored at 12:51. After Varlamov made a save against Keith Ballard, Parise got to the rebound and passed across to Granlund, who scored into a wide-open net.
Mitchell scored at 1:43 of the second to break a 1-1 tie shortly after Jamie McGinn put a big hit on Wild defenseman Nate Prosser in front of the Avalanche bench. Nate Guenin passed to Mitchell, who skated to the top of the faceoff circles and shot the puck between goalie Darcy Kuemper's pads.
Stastny put in the rebound of Erik Johnson's shot at 9:17. Stastny passed back to Johnson and moved to the front of the net. Johnson fired a shot from above the right circle, and Stastny put in the loose puck.
Talbot converted another rebound at 15:26. MacKinnon slid a cross-ice pass to Mitchell, who one-timed a shot from the right circle. Kuemper deflected the puck with his glove, the puck dropped outside the crease, and Talbot banged it home.
The Wild replaced Kuemper with Niklas Backstrom after Talbot scored. Kuemper faced 23 shots, 13 in the second period.
Ryan O'Reilly gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 4:41 of the first period with his 20th goal, two more than his previous career high set in 81 games in 2011-12. Matt Duchene passed to O'Reilly in the right circle for a shot that beat Kuemper to the far corner.
O'Reilly has six goals and three assists in the past nine games after missing two games with a shoulder injury.
The Wild tied the game at 6:16 on a power-play goal by Parise. Minnesota had gone 1-for-26 with the man-advantage in the previous nine games but scored 26 seconds after Gabriel Landeskog was penalized for hooking.
Ryan Suter took a wrist shot from just inside the blue line and Parise, who had inside position on Avalanche defenseman Jan Hejda, knocked the puck behind Varlamov.
Parise has three goals and four assists in four games since returning from a foot injury that caused him to miss 14 games.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
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31/01/2014 - 06:00
