Wild's dominant win over Avalanche doesn't resemble playoff battle
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- When the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche met in the first round of last year's playoffs, it was about as tight and exciting of a series for which fans from both sides could have hoped.
The series went to seven games and featured four overtimes. Five of the seven games were decided by just one goal. In total, the Wild outscored the Avalanche by two goals for the entire seven-game series en route to winning Game 7.
Thursday's season opener between the same two teams didn't resemble that playoff series at all -- and that proved to be a good thing for the Wild.
Minnesota dominated the visiting Avalanche from start to finish and in all facets of the game. The final 5-0 score only tells part of the story of the one-sidedness of Thursday's win at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild outshot Colorado 48-16 and seemingly never looked uncomfortable against an Avalanche team that gave them fits at times in last year's playoffs.
"We caught Colorado on an off night, let's be honest," said Wild forward Zach Parise, who had a goal and two assists in Minnesota's win. "It was probably a combination of us playing well, and I don't think they played very well. They'll probably say that, too. We know that's a much better team than what they showed tonight. We started the way we wanted to. That's important for us."
Minnesota jumped on the board late in the first period when Jason Pominville collected a Mikael Granlund rebound and buried it past Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov. That sent the Wild into the locker room with a 1-0 lead after one.
Given how back-and-forth last year's playoff series went, one goal likely wasn't going to be enough to win it. But as Minnesota held Colorado scoreless throughout the game -- thanks in part to 16 saves by goalie Darcy Kuemper -- it turned out to be more than plenty.
Even so, the Wild piled on in the second period. Jared Spurgeon slid a centering pass from Zach Parise past Varlamov for a 2-0 lead 4:37 into the second. Minutes later, it was Parise's turn to find the back of the net as he scored seconds after a faceoff at center ice. His 4-on-4 goal made it a 3-0 Wild advantage, but the rout would continue.
Nino Niederreiter scored unassisted at 13:21, and Ryan Suter's slapshot from Parise and Charlie Coyle made it 5-0 late in the second. The Avalanche looked stunned. The Wild seemed to be enjoying themselves.
"We were clicking," Suter said. "We know they're going to be better next game. Whenever you score a lot of goals like that, you know they're going to bear down defensively, so we have to be ready for that. It was a good night offensively for sure."
Minnesota's next game against Colorado is in just a few days as the Wild travel to Denver on Saturday for a rematch with the Avalanche. The message in Minnesota's locker room after Thursday's game: the 5-0 win was nice, but a bit of an aberration. The Wild know they'll see a different Colorado team this weekend.
"We know how good these guys are. It's the same team as last year. We know how good they are and what type of series we had. We expect a much better team on Saturday. At the same time, I think ourselves, we can be better, too."
It's hard to believe the Wild can do much better than they did Thursday. The 5-0 win was the largest home-opener win in the team's history, and the Wild are now 3-0-0 all-time in home openers against Colorado. The 48 shots on goal set a new franchise record for the most in a single game. That included 21 shots in the second period alone, two short of the team record for most shots in a period.
Minnesota's offense seemingly never left Colorado's zone, led by the top line of Parise, Granlund and Pominville, which combined for seven points and two of the Wild's five goals.
"They looked even better than what they did last year. That's a very confident group," Wild coach Mike Yeo said of the top line. "They got a lot of chemistry together and they read off each other very well, in all aspects of the game, too. It's not just the offensive part of it. Defensively they read off each other very well and they communicate. They've got good chemistry right now. So, we'll just get out of the way and let them keep doing their thing."
As the No. 7 seed in last year's playoffs, Minnesota played on the road in four of the seven games against No. 2 Colorado. After losing the first three games in Denver, the Wild needed to win the final game of the series to advance.
That Game 7 was a microcosm of the series as Minnesota won 5-4 in overtime on a Niederreiter goal. Now the Wild return to that site for the first time since the playoffs, and they know they'll be facing an Avalanche squad looking to show that Thursday's lopsided effort was a fluke.
"Games were obviously a little tighter (in the playoffs), but when they came here, we found ways to win here. We went there, we struggled on the road," Pominville said. "So, we've got to enjoy this tonight, put this behind us and look forward to the next one because we know they're going to be ready to play at home."
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