DENVER (AP) — Nico Sturm led a balanced Minnesota scoring attack with two goals, Kaapo Kahkonen was sharp in making 30 saves and the Wild earned their fourth straight win by beating the Colorado Avalanche 6-2 on Wednesday night.
Mats Zuccarello, Zach Parise, Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman also scored for the Wild, who finished 4-1 on their road swing. In all, 10 Minnesota players had at least one point.
“Throughout the lineup, everybody is playing really well,” Kahkonen said. “Great to see.”
It was a milestone night for Parise, who earned career point No. 800 with his goal.
“Those numbers, round numbers, are nice to hit,” Parise said. “It means I’ve been playing the game for a while now.”
The game was originally scheduled for Feb. 4, but got postponed due to COVID-19 protocols.
Kahkonen has turned back 103 of 109 shots during the win streak. He’s stepped up with Cam Talbot working his way back after being removed from the COVID-19 protocol list.
“It takes everybody,” Kahkonen said. “You can’t rely on one line or one D-pair or one goalie. It takes the full team in the long run to have success. We have a really good thing going. We’ve got to keep going.”
J.T. Compher and Nazem Kadri scored for an Avalanche team that’s dropped two in a row. They were 5-0 following a loss this season.
Kadri’s power-play goal with 17 minutes remaining pulled the Avalanche to 3-2. It ended an 0-for-19 drought with the man advantage spanning the last seven games. Colorado’s special teams also allowed a short-handed goal by Foligno in the second period.
Minnesota put the game away with goals by Hartman and Sturm 1:03 apart in the third. Sturm added another late in the final period.
Those were the first two regular-season goals of Sturm’s career. His only previous NHL goal came in the playoffs last August against Vancouver.
“If you had a camera on the bench when he scored his goal, it’s as excited as our group has been all year,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “It’s nice for a guy like that to get rewarded, for sure.”
Zuccarello scored for a third straight game. He also had an assist to give him nine points since his season debut on Feb. 16. Zuccarello missed the first 11 games with an upper-body injury.
Comments