In St Paul, the Minnesota Wild are a team in search of defense. On Monday night, the Wild lost to the Colorado Avalanche, 6-3 to go 03-0 to start the season.
“Goals against is a concern,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “It’s not on the goalie. It’s on the goalie, it’s on the defense, it’s on the forwards, it’s on the coaches. It’s on all of us. We’re giving up way too many goals. … We’ll all be accountable, and we’ll get rid of this together.”
The Avs’ Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and three points each in the win.
Alexandar Georgiev made 36 saves in the win.
“I thought [Georgiev] was really good again,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “You look at the goals he’s given up so far this season, it’s all power play and one with a delayed penalty with the goalie pulled. Five-on-5, he’s been strong. It seems like he’s reading where the chances are coming from. He’s been early getting over into position and making some nice saves. I thought both goalies played really well at the end of the game. There was a couple flurries at both ends, but ‘Georgie’ made the big four saves on that one scrum which kind of keeps us with our lead.”
Kirill Kaprizov hot for a double for the Wild; Joel Eriksson Ek added a single marker for the Wild.
All three Wild strikes came off the power play.
Samuel Girard, Ben Meyers, and Mikko Rantanen also scored for the Avs.
“[MacKinnon’s] playing his game,” Colorado forward J.T. Compher said. “Playing fast, and heavy, and smart and making nice plays and getting rewarded for it. Whether he gets points or not, he’s driving the bus and we try to feed off that.”
Josh Manson had a single marker in the win.
Filip Gustavsson made 32 saves in the Minnesota loss.
“It’s tough. We’re in a funk right now,” the Wild’s Calen Addison said. “There’s a lot of bounces we’re not getting both ways. I think we played well. We’re taking a step in the right direction. We’re obviously showing how well we can work teams down low and create offense in their zone and things like that. We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing and we’re going to get out of it.”
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