MacKinnon and Drouin each get 3 points as Avalanche beat Wild 5-2
A live TV news station covering breaking news and traffic for Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Southern Colorado with a strong investigative team The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Minnesota Wild 5-2, moving closer to first place in the Central Division. Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin each scored three points, while Justus Annunen made a career-high 44 saves. The win marked Colorado's bounce back from a loss at Columbus. The Wild's chances are fading as they sit eight points behind Los Angeles in the Western Conference.
प्रकाशित : 4 सप्ताह पहले द्वारा में
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists, Justus Annunen made a career-high 44 saves and the Colorado Avalanche moved closer to first place in the Central Division with a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.
Jonathan Drouin scored twice and added an assist as the playoff-bound Avalanche bounced back from a vexing loss Monday at Columbus, last in the Eastern Conference. Second-place Colorado is three points behind idle Dallas, which leads the Central Division and Western Conference with 105 points.
Meanwhile, the Wild’s slim postseason chances are fading.
Artturi Lehkonen and Mikko Rantanen also scored for the Avs.
Annunen thwarted chance after chance in his 16th career game. The native of Finland won a Stanley Cup with Colorado while serving as the team’s backup goalie for part of the 2022 playoffs.
Colorado took a 2-1 lead in the first period on goals by Lehkonen and Drouin.
Drouin’s goal with 7:32 left came eight seconds into a power play.
Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov had gone off for tripping, which drew the ire of the Wild bench; teammate Joel Eriksson Ek appeared to get tripped at the same time.
Drouin added his second goal of the night 43 seconds into the second period, deflecting in MacKinnon’s shot from the point to make it 3-1. Chisholm answered with a power-play goal with 9:50 left in the middle period.
MacKinnon, second in the NHL in points, made it 4-2 at 6:32 of the third and Rantanen added an empty-net goal with 1:28 left.
Minnesota began the night eight points behind Los Angeles for the second Western Conference wild card. The Kings played later at last-place San Jose.
The Wild have seven games remaining.