Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2 in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal series in Denver on Tuesday night.
Colorado swept the first two games at home and has won six straight to start the postseason. Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Saturday night in St. Paul, Minn.
Gabriel Landeskog and Martin Necas had a goal and an assist each, Nicolas Roy and Valeri Nichushkin also scored, Brett Kulak had two assists and Scott Wedgewood turned away 29 shots for the Avalanche.
Filip Gustavsson had 18 saves in his first start of this postseason for Minnesota, replacing rookie Jesper Wallstedt, who allowed eight goals on 42 shots in Game 1.
Marcus Johansson and Kirill Kaprizov had goals for the Wild, who were without injured top-line center Joel Eriksson Ek and injured defenseman Jonas Brodin for the second straight game.
After a 15-goal barrage in Game 1, the teams started fast in Game 2. Necas opened the scoring just 2:51 into the game when he got a pass from MacKinnon and lifted a backhander over Gustavsson’s left shoulder to give Colorado a 1-0 lead.
The Wild answered off the ensuing faceoff. Mats Zuccarello passed it to Ryan Hartman, and he slid the puck to Kaprizov at the Avalanche blueline. Kaprizov went in alone on Wedgwood and beat him with a wrister six seconds after Necas scored.
Colorado went back in front 15 seconds into its first power play midway through the first period when MacKinnon fed Landeskog in front of the net at 8:24 of the first.
“Five on five we did a lot of good things tonight,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “Special teams need to be better. I thought the first power play we had was really good. We did everything but score, and then the other one wasn’t what we needed it to be.”
“I thought Gustavsson gave us a chance to win,” Hynes added. “The difference in the game was the special teams. That’s basically what it comes down to.”
Roy made it 3-1 just 1:24 into the second period when he got behind the defense and beat Gustavsson with a snap shot.
Minnesota controlled the play for much of the third period and had great chances on a power play but Wedgewood denied a close-in shot at 5:54.
“I thought we stuck to our game plan all night long, penalty kill came up big, Wedgie was awesome for us once again,” Landeskog said.
Colorado went on the power play and MacKinnon scored on a one-timer at 13:18 to make it a three-goal cushion.
Johansson’s goal at 14:33 gave the Wild life, and Gustavsson came off for an extra skater with 2:20 left. Nichushkin scored into the empty net at 19:55.
“They’re probably going to come hard in their building, we know that, so we’ll be ready to play,” Roy said of Game 3.
–Field Level Media
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