The Minnesota Wild hosted the Colorado Avalanche in the second half of their home back-to-back on Sunday evening, Dec. 21. The Wild’s injury list was the same as the game before, while the Avalanche were without Logan O’Connor. Both teams were coming off wins and looked to keep their respective win streaks alive.
Related: 3 Takeaways From the Wild’s 5-2 Win Over the Oilers
Jesper Wallstedt was in the net for the Wild while Mackenzie Blackwood was in the net for the Avalanche. The game started in favor of the Avalanche and although the Wild tried to get back into it, the Avalanche took the 5-1 win. This moved the Wild’s record to 22-10-5 and the Avalanche to 26-2-7.
Game Recap
With barely a minute and a half left in the opening period, the Avalanche struck first with a goal from Martin Necas. Cale Makar and Gabriel Landeskog assisted him to make it 1-0. That was the only goal of the period, and the Avalanche took the lead into the second.
The Avalanche thought they scored again early in the second period, but it was overturned due to offsides. Nathan MacKinnon scored later in the period on the power play that gave his team a 2-0 lead. Brock Nelson and Makar assisted him. Makar scored his own goal on the power play just under five minutes later. Nelson and Landeskog assisted him, which gave their team a 3-0 lead. That was the final goal of the second period and the Avalanche took the lead into the third.
The Wild got on the board first in the final period with a goal from Ryan Hartman that got his team within two. Jonas Brodin and Kirill Kaprizov assisted him. The Avalanche added to their lead late in the period with a goal from Nelson. He was assisted by Samuel Girard and Valeri Nichushkin to make it 4-1. MacKinnon added an empty net goal in the final minutes to extend the Avalanche’s lead to 5-1. Devon Toews and Nichushkin assited him and that was the final goal of the game as the Avalanche took the win.
The Wild will remain at home for one more game on Tuesday evening, Dec. 23, when they host the Nashville Predators in their final game before the NHL’s annual holiday break. The Avalanche will head back home to host the Utah Mammoth also on Tuesday.
