The Minnesota Wild don’t seem to have an answer for rookie sensation Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche.
MacKinnon scored a goal and had three assists as he led the Avalanche to a 4-2 victory over the Wild Saturday night in Denver, in Game 2 of the NHL’s Western Conference quarterfinals, according to SportsNetwork.com
MacKinnon, who’s just 18, also had three assists in Colorado’s 5-4 overtime win on Thursday night. The Avalanche are now up two games to none over the Wild in the best-of-seven series.
The Wild took an early 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by Charlie Coyle, but after that it was all Colorado. They scored three straight goals to make it 3-1 in the second period, and at that point Wild goalie Ilya Bryzgalov was pulled.
Darcy Kuemper came on in relief after missing the last eight games because of an upper-body injury, and he stopped all six shots he faced to close out the period. He ended up with a total of 14 saves.
The Wild made it interesting at the end, when Marco Scandella scored with 1:19 left to cut Colorado’s lead to 3-2. But Paul Stastny scored an empty-net goal with 14.2 seconds left to put the game away for Colorado.
The Wild hasn’t won a playoff series in 11 years, the Star Tribune reports. They lost in the first round last year as well.
Game three is Monday evening at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
