Gabriel Landeskog had two goals and two assists to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night in Denver.
Erik Johnson had a goal and an assist, and Nazem Kadri also scored a goal for Colorado, which won back-to-back games for the first time this season while getting back to the .500 mark (4-4-0). Nathan MacKinnon and J.T. Compher each added two assists, and Darcy Kuemper finished with 29 saves.
Ryan Hartman scored for Minnesota, which lost the final two games of its three-game western road trip. Cam Talbot stopped 27 of 30 shots.
Colorado, which handed Central Division leading St. Louis its first loss of the season on Thursday, took a 1-0 lead at the 13:03 mark of the first period. Landeskog tallied his third goal of the season at the end of a tic-tac-toe passing play with MacKinnon and Andre Burakovsky, firing a wrist shot past Talbot's blocker side from the slot.
Minnesota tied it, 1-1, early in the second period on Hartman's fourth goal of the season. The score, which came on a one-timer from the slot off a Marcus Foligno pass from the goal line, snapped an 0-for-14 power-play streak for the Wild.
The Avalanche regained the lead just 40 seconds later on Johnson's first goal of the season. MacKinnon set up the play with a hard check on Jonas Brodin to win the puck in the left corner. MacKinnon then hit Johnson with a pass at the top of the left circle, where he fired a wrist shot past Talbot's blocker side.
Colorado extended the lead to 3-1 early in the third period on Kadri's third goal of the season. The score came 29 seconds into a five-minute power play for the Avalanche after Wild forward Brandon Duhaime drew a major for cross-checking Bo Byram into the end boards.
The Wild pulled Talbot for an extra attacker with 2:45 to go and Landeskog sealed the win with an empty-net goal 33 seconds later.
--Field Level Media
Minnesota | Colorado | |
Ryan Hartman 1 | Points | Gabriel Landeskog 4 |
Ryan Hartman 1 | Goals | Gabriel Landeskog 2 |
Matt Dumba 1 | Assists | Gabriel Landeskog 2 |
Ryan Hartman 1 | Power Play Goals | Nazem Kadri 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Cam Talbot .900 | Save Percentage | Darcy Kuemper .967 |
Cam Talbot 27 | Saves | Darcy Kuemper 29 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Minnesota | 30 | 1 | 1-2 | 3-4 | 21 | 33 |
Colorado | 31 | 4 | 1-4 | 1-2 | 6 | 29 |