Avalanche take Game 1 over Wild in one of highest-scoring playoff games ever

Explosive first period

After Minnesota went without a shot on goal in the game's first power play, the Avalanche responded with a blizzard of goals — three in the span of 1 minute and 22 seconds.

At 11:12 of the period, Sam Malinksi ripped a shot over Jesper Wallstedt's left shoulder and into the top corner of the net for a 1-0 lead. Fifty-two seconds later, Jack Drury capitalized on an ugly turnover by Jake Middleton for a 2-0 lead.

Twenty seconds later, Brock Faber and Gabriel Landeskog got into a scuffle, with Faber getting called for cross-checking and roughing penalties, while Landeskog went to the box for a roughing penalty. That gave the Avalanche a power play, and Artturi Lehkonen waited only 39 seconds before giving Colorado a 3-0 lead.

Just when it looked bleak, the Wild responded. Marcus Johansson scored at 15:02 of the period, and the Wild cut the deficit to 3-2 when Ryan Hartman got in front of the net and banged home a goal 62 seconds later.

More explosive second period

A penalty on the Avs 21 seconds into the second period gave the Wild a great chance to tie the game, but they again failed to score with the man advantage, and just 1:55 after killing the penalty, Colorado struck for a 4-2 lead on a breakout featuring a beautiful cross-ice pass from Valeri Nichushkin to Nick Blankenburg.

But again, the Wild came charging back with three consecutive goals, the first two from Vladimir Tarasenko and Quinn Hughes, and then the third in short-handed fashion when Marcus Foligno took advantage of a turnover and beat goaltender Scott Wedgewood for a 5-4 lead.

Colorado still had more than a minute left on its power play, though, and they wound up tying the game 69 seconds later when Devon Toews fired a shot through traffic as time expired on the man advantage.

Colorado blitzes in the third period

At 3:21, Cale Makar beat Wallstedt after he found himself in space after the Avs won a faceoff, and Kirill Kaprizov got out of position by gravitating toward Nathan MacKinnon. That left Makar all alone, and he didn't miss.

The Avs made it 7-5 when a blocked shot sprung Nazem Kadri, who ripped a shot by Wallstedt on the glove side at the 5:43 mark.

Hartman had two beautiful chances to score shortly after Colorado went up by two goals, but one shot hit a post, and another opportunity was stonewalled by Wedgewood, who continued to deny the Wild until Matt Boldy backhanded a bouncing puck toward the net and Mats Zuccarello deflected it in to cut the deficit to one with 3:59 remaining.

Just 65 seconds later, Makar struck again, wristing a shot through traffic for an 8-6 lead.

Minnesota pulled Wallstedt for an extra attacker with about 2:30 to play, and MacKinnon flung a shot from his own red line and found the empty net to make it 9-6.

Game 2 is at 7 p.m. CT on Tuesday.