In Denver, the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Minnesota Wild, 4-2.
Philipp Grubauer made 29 saves to get the win.
Mikko Rantanen had a goal, his third of the season, in the win.
“It wasn’t our best game,” Rantanen said. “I think defensively we were a little bit sloppy with the puck, especially in the neutral zone and [defensive] zone. Some things we can do better, but obviously, we have to look at [Grubauer] and how he played again. He was making some key saves at the key times of the game.”
Ryan Graves, Gabriel Landeskog and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored for the Avs.
“The difference in the game to me was our start,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “Real good legs early, skating, executing, creating some scoring chances we capitalized on. They pushed back and outworked us for good portions of the second period. The third period we sort of came back to life a little bit. We had a few self-inflicted wounds.”
Zach Parise and Ryan Suter scored for the Wild.
“When we got the second one, I thought we had chances to go ahead,” Parise said. “But as expected, they came out buzzing, which you have to expect in this building. We had looks and opportunities, the effort was there, and we played hard. They capitalized and that was it.”
[WATCH:Â All Wild vs. Avalanche highlights]
Devan Dubnyk made 28 saves in the loss.
“If we play that hard, you’re going to win a lot of hockey games because this is a pretty hostile environment,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. “To take them to the wire and give them everything … Grubauer had to make some pretty big saves at the end to keep it at a one-goal game.”
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