In Denver, the Avalanche’s Gabriel Landeskog had a hand in all four goals Colorado potted in Saturday night’s 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild.
Landeskog scored twice and added two assists to the scoresheet.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Landeskog said. “They check hard and they don’t give up a whole lot, so we had to work for everything we got. I think we did a good job of that. We played well defensively for the most part of the game and we ended up getting the W.”
The Avs improved to 4-4-0.
Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves for the Avs win.
“I liked his (Kuemper) game a lot,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “He was square to the shooter all night. We did a nice job taking care of the rebounds, but he looked confident, he looked out on top of the crease. There wasn’t a lot to shoot at and he fought through the traffic pretty well. It was a solid performance for him, for sure.”
Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman scored the lone Wild goal.
“It’s hard to go in and talk to the guys after games like that and say, ‘Stay positive. We played great, we just didn’t get the results,'” Wild head coach Dean Evason said. “But we really did. We did so many really good things in this hockey game. We didn’t get the result, but if we can play that type of game, in all three zones, we’ll be in good shape.”
The Wild dropped to 5-3-0.
The Avs replied quickly to the Wild’s tying goal in the middle frame; Erik Johnson scored for Colorado for a 2-1 lead.
“It’s been a while with the COVID year and not playing last year (limited to four games because of injury), so it just felt good to get on the board again in front of fans,” Johnson said. “It just felt good. It’s tough to describe the adrenalin and the feeling when you score a goal like that at home. If you could bottle it up and save it for a bad day, you want to do that. It feels good.”
Nazem Kadri scored early in the third for a 3-1 lead to the Avs.
Cam Talbot made 27 saves in the Wild loss.
“We still had some looks at the end, but it’s a tough game to keep coming back, obviously,” Talbot said. “But we were still in that hockey game late.
“You never want to lose two in a row, and you definitely don’t want to lose three. We’ll go back home, regroup, have our fans behind us again, and hopefully come up there and play one of our best games of the year so far.”
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