In Denver, the Minnesota Wild scored three times in the third period and erased any push the Colorado Avalanche had in a 6-2 decision Wednesday night.
Zach Parise had a goal, his 800th NHL point, in the win.
“Those numbers, round numbers, are nice to hit,” said Parise, who has 389 goals and 411 assists in 1,031 NHL games. “Wish I would’ve been able to get it out of the way earlier in the season. It means I’ve been playing the game for a while now.”
Kaapo Kahkonen made 30 saves to get the win.
“Some of the saves that he made, in key moments in that hockey game, where they’re pushing and he makes a brilliant save and the guys just react on the bench, it’s exciting for sure” Wild head coach Dean Evason said. “I mean, guys get jacked when we score goals, but it’s nice for us to see that the saves and the blocked shots for that matter, the guys are just as excited.”
Nazem Kadri and J.T. Compher were the strikers for the Avs.
“A bit of adversity, I think, is good for us as a group and it’s going to be good for us long term,” the Avalanche’s Gabriel Landeskog said. “Good teams find a way to turn things around pretty quickly, and I have no doubt we’ll do that.”
It was the second straight loss for Colorado who dropped to 9-6-1.
“Zach’s been a great teammate,” Evason said. “You guys look at the numbers and all that kind of stuff, we look at how the guy conducts himself on and off the ice and around the team. If you’re a good teammate and still competing and doing all the right things and not being a distraction for whatever reason, you’re going to give yourself an opportunity to have success.”
Nico Sturm struck twice for the Wild, his first two two of the season.
“If you had a camera on the bench when [Sturm] scored his goal, it’s as excited as our group has been all year,” Evason said. “It’s nice for a guy like that to get rewarded for sure.”
Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman added single markers for Minnesota.
Philipp Grubauer made 19 saves in the loss.
“We didn’t get some of the saves we’ve been getting from him, but I didn’t hate his game,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said of Grubauer. “You look at his game, generally he’s going to have one or two of those goals, not that they were weak goals by any means. I’d put it on the breakdowns of our team. Those are easy goals that we’re handing out, scoring chances that we’re handing out.”
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