Colorado Avalanche Eliminate Minnesota Wild In Round 2 Of Western Conference Playoffs

Colorado won Game 4 (5-2) on May 11, outplaying Minnesota at every turn. This was important as they were coming off a 5-1 loss in Game 3, and they were immediately back on their groove.

The Avalanche started Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood in Game 4, his first start of the playoffs. He saved 19 shots. Nazem Kadri, Ross Colton, Parker Kelly, Nathan MacKinnon, and Brock Nelson all scored for Colorado. It was Kelly’s first career playoff goal.

The Wild were the first to score with Danil Yurov, and Nico Sturm scored as well. Goalie Jesper Wallstedt saved 29 of 32 shots for a solid performance. Like Kelly, Sturm scored his first career playoff goal.

The Avalanche’s last two goals came on an empty net. “I think it was a great all-around game. Every line contributed, and (Blackwood) was great,” Colorado’s Martin Necas said. “We knew this was going to be a good one. They had their push last game. We kind of came back today. We enjoy this one for the rest of night, but tomorrow’s a new day.”

Game 5, in contrast, wasn’t looking good for the Avalanche until the last few minutes of the third period. The Wild got three goals in the first period, even with a goal being recalled due to Michael McCarron pushing a puck into the goal with his hand. Marcus Foligno shone, scoring twice, and Marcus Johansson also scored. Wallstedt saved 30 shots in both regulation and overtime.

The Avalanche had a goal from Kelly, but were down 3-1 with 3:34 remaining in the third period. Jack Drury got the go-ahead goal, then MacKinnon scored the tying goal with less than 90 seconds left in regulation.

In overtime, Brett Kulak scored the game-winner early on, and that sealed the deal for the Avalanche. It was a tough loss for the Wild, who hoped to keep the series going.

Post-Game 5 Reactions

“You always like to dream about it … the player I am, I’m not the guy everyone’s looking down the bench like, ‘Alright, get out there and go win it for us,’” Kulak said after his series-clinching goal. “It was a tough series. That’s a good team over there, so for us to play the way we did and get the job done (is great). And just for me, a special goal in my career, for sure.”

Wild coach John Hynes chose to take a positive mindset.

“When you go after something like this, right, there’s going to be two sides of the coin. One is you’re going to win, which is a great feeling, and when you lose, it’s an empty feeling,” he said. “It’s a little raw right now.

“But as I said earlier, I think this group was a highly competitive group throughout the year, stuck together, went through the ups and the downs, and I think we’ll take a look at the first series (a 4-2 series win against the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference First Round) and take lessons out of that. And I think you’re going to take some things out of this, and then you have to move forward.”

MacKinnon’s scoring rate in playoff games (46.2% or 48 of 102 games) is third in NHL history. The Avalanche had 17 different players score in 9 games, only the seventh team in league history to do so. They also became the fifth team in history to clinch a series after facing a multi-goal deficit.

The Avalanche will wait and hope that the Ducks-Golden Knights series goes to 7 games before the Western Conference Finals begin so that they can rest and prepare.