Chalk up another win for the Wild as they defeated the Avalanche 6-4 in Colorado Friday night, using three third-period goals to stage the comeback victory.
Trailing 4-3, the Wild tied the scored 4-4 on Mats Zuccarello’s rebound goal at the 10:41 mark. Victor Rask’s slap shot gave Minnesota 5-4 lead 77 seconds later, and Ryan Suter added an empty-netter with 1:12 remaining to secure the win.
“When you believe you can come back, you have to have that belief before you can do it,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said, via NHL.com. “I don’t think we had it at the beginning of the year, but I do think the guys never think they’re out of it at this stage.”
Minnesota was 6-11-1 entering play Nov. 14 and is now 19-15-5. Since Nov. 14, the Wild’s 13-4-4 record (30 points) is the best in the NHL. That’s six weeks of being the most efficient point-scoring team in the league.
During that stretch they are second in the NHL in goals per game (3.62), and the last two road games have seen a total of 14 goals (8 at Arizona, 6 at Colorado).
The Wild, idle until hosting the Islanders Sunday, enters Saturday just one point out of both wild-card spots in the Western Conference.
