Dubnyk, Wild shut out Avalanche
The official game recap Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche.Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves and Zach Parise had two goals when the Minnesota Wild defeated the Colorado Avalanche, 4-0, at Pepsi Center on Saturday.
The win was the fifth in a row for the Wild (37-28-11), who increased their lead to five points ahead of the Avalanche for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Minnesota is 4-0-1 against Colorado this season. The Avalanche (38-33-4), who lost each game of a two-game homestand, have a game in hand on the Wild with seven games remaining.
It was the fifth shutout of the season for Dubnyk and first since Dec. 3 when he made 28 saves in a 1-0 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Parise, who had a hat trick Thursday against the Calgary Flames, scored his second goal and 24th of the season on a power play at 4:55 of the third period for a 3-0 lead after the Avalanche's Shawn Matthias went off for hooking Mikael Granlund.
Ryan Suter passed to Parise, who was high in the right circle and had plenty of time to tee up a shot that went past Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov's right shoulder.
Parise has nine points (six goals, three assists) in five games against the Avalanche this season.
Granlund scored a shorthanded, empty-net goal at 11:06 to increase the Wild lead to 4-0. The Avalanche pulled Varlamov for an extra skater with 9:20 left in the period.
The Wild got goals from Parise and Jordan Schroeder in the second period to take a 2-0 lead. Parise opened the scoring at 11:27 after a pass for Mikhail Grigorenko didn't connect at the Avalanche blue line.
Parise gained possession and passed to Granlund in the right circle. Parise continued unimpeded down the left side and redirected Granlund's pass into a half-open net.
Varlamov, who denied Parise on a shorthanded breakaway at 7:56, made a save against Nino Niederreiter on a breakaway after a Colorado turnover at 18:49. He finished with 31 saves.
The Wild made it 2-0 with 21.3 seconds left in the period. Marco Scandella made a long pass to Justin Fontaine, who fed Schroeder breaking in alone for a redirection that hit Varlamov and bounced into the net for his second goal.
The Wild limited the Avalanche to one shot on goal in the final 9:45 of the period.
The Avalanche didn't have a shot on goal on a first-period power play, but Dubnyk made 11 saves in the period, his best a glove stop against John Mitchell at 15:08.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
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26/03/2016 - 23:30
