A slow start to the season is now a distant memory as the surging Minnesota Wild (6-2-1) pushed its winning streak to five on Saturday night, taking down the Colorado Avalanche (7-3-2) by a score of 3-2 at Xcel Energy Center.
Mikael Granlund extended his point streak to seven games with a goal to tie the score 1-1 in the second period, and Eric Staal’s power-play goal with 9:44 left in the third period put Minnesota up 2-1.
The difference, though, proved to be an empty-netter by Jonas Brodin, who fired the puck the length of the ice late in the third period to put Minnesota up 3-1. Colorado would score with 41 seconds to play to cut the deficit to one, but that’s all the closer they’d get.
“I got lucky on that one,” Brodin said. “I felt I could go for it. It’s a PK, too, so it’s not going to be icing. I went for it and I got lucky.”
Minnesota’s penalty kill (PK) was again fantastic, killing all six Colorado power plays. Colorado entered the game with the eighth-best power play in the NHL (27.5 percent).
“Special teams in games like this win you games,” head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “They were the difference, I thought.”
Minnesota now hits the road for a seven-game road trip beginning Monday night in Vancouver. They don’t play at home again until Nov. 13.
