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05/04 10:28 CDT A stunning 9-6 Avalanche win over the Wild turns a
defense-first series into a 15-goal frenzy
A stunning 9-6 Avalanche win over the Wild turns a defense-first series into a
15-goal frenzy
By ARNIE STAPLETON
AP Sports Writer
DENVER (AP) --- Two of the NHL's best defenses and a pair of the game's
ironfisted goaltenders are squaring off in Round 2, promising a paucity of
pucks flashing the red light in the Minnesota-Colorado series, right?
Not in Game 1.
A whopping 14 players scored Sunday night, Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood gave
up a half-dozen goals --- one more than he allowed in his team's sweep of the
Los Angeles Kings in Round 1 --- and yet the Avalanche prevailed 9-6 after
Jesper Wallstedt surrendered a career-high eight goals before an empty-netter
completed the madness.
"It was a weird one," said Avalanche star Cale Makar, the only player to score
multiple goals in the opener of a series that resumes Tuesday night at Ball
Arena with both teams pledging to tighten up their defense.
"Weird game for sure," Wild defenseman Jake Middleton concurred. "I mean, it's
the playoffs, you can't be too surprised with what transpires."
It was downright shocking to see so many goals, Avs center Nazem Kadri said.
"We did not expect that kind of game at all," Kadri said. "In fact, quite the
opposite."
The Avalanche, who surrendered the fewest goals in the regular season, jumped
out to a 3-0 lead over the almost-as-stingy Wild less than seven minutes into
the game only to have to sweat it out and forge a comeback themselves after
Minnesota scored five of the next six goals.
"It felt like the puck, the puck just had eyes today for them," Wallstedt said.
There were five goals scored in each of the three periods.
"Yeah, it's nothing either of us wants," Wedgewood said. "Obviously we want a
couple of them back on both sides. But you've got to give credit offenses. It's
playoff hockey."
The Avs, who won the President's Trophy with the league's best regular-season
record, opened the playoffs with a pair of 2-1 nail-biters over the Kings. And
the crowd clearly expected that pucks whacking the nets would be at a premium
in this series, too.
"Versatility," Kadri said. "That's what we always talk about, whether we've got
to go high-flying offense or lock-down defense, I certainly feel comfortable in
both scenarios and I know this team does as well."
Kadri looked at the bright side of the 15-goal slugfest, which he figured
shouldn't have been entirely unexpected given the Avalanche's week off after
sweeping LA while the Wild needed six games to dispatch Dallas in a competitive
first round.
"You've got to win different ways come playoff time," Kadri said. "I think we
were a little loose and a little rusty defensively, but we'll get that
tightened up. I think it's just being off for a little while and defensively
trying to get engaged in the game took a little longer than expected for us.
"But at the end of the day, we found a way to win. On the flip side, the
offensive side was going."
Colorado captain Gabe Landeskog said that although both teams are touted for
their defense, "we've got some really good shooters on both teams," and that
once it became a slugfest, it was all about surviving the onslaught.
"You have to find ways to win," he said. "We took the lead and they tied it
back up and then they took the lead and we tied it back up, it was just back
and forth, you're just trying to find a way to win the hockey game, you're
trying to find a way to stop the bleeding. And you're just trying to settle
into the game.
"It's nice to be able to win games like this, not necessarily a coach's dream
or a player's dream. We don't want to give up six goals. So, it's good to win
this one, but we've got lots of things to clean up."
Makar opened the third period with an unassisted goal to break a 5-all tie, and
his wrist shot with 2:54 remaining --- the fifth by an Avs defenseman --- made
it 8-6. This, after missing 17 minutes of the first period with a lower-body
injury.
"That's Cale Makar doing Cale Makar things," Landeskog said.
"Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to unpack in this one," Wild coach John Hynes
said. "Was a bit of a helter-skelter game. Obviously you can tell by the score.
We'll take a look at some things and take some lessons out of this one. Be
ready for Game 2."
Hynes insisted he never considered pulling his goaltender.
"No, I thought Wally played ... look what the score was," Hynes said. "And
their guy was in for a lot of goals against, too."
___
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and
https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
