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Wild, Filip Gustavsson stands his ground but falls in overtime: Key takeaways vs. Avalanche

Tess Quinn
Wild, Filip Gustavsson stands his ground but falls in overtime: Key takeaways vs. Avalanche

DENVER – Colorado Avalanche acquired. Minnesota Wild sold out. However, in Friday night's game in the Mile High City, they looked like two evenly matched teams who excelled in goaltending before the Avs beat the Wild 2-1 in overtime.

Valery Nikushkin, in his first game in Colorado's lineup after receiving sponsorship in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, scored with 11 seconds left on a four-on-three power play after Kirill Kaprizov converted a penalty kick in overtime.

The game came two days after a wild trade of Brandon Duhaime, Connor Dewar and Pat Maroon and the Avs added Hassan Duhaime, Casey Mittelstadt, Sean Walker and Yakov Trenin and took back Nishushkin.

Avs coach Jared Bednar quipped that he has so many new faces that he may need to rely on his lineup card more than usual.

However, Alexander Georgiev and Filip Gustafsson, who has had a sub-.900 save percentage in eight of his past 10 starts, have gone toe-to-toe, with Georgiev making 29 saves through regulation and Gustafsson making 36 saves.

With a second-half goal, Brock Faber had his 37th point to surpass Marian Gaborik's 36 points for the third-highest single-season point total in Wild rookie history. It took Nathan MacKinnon just 42 seconds to extend his home run point streak to 32 games by assisting on Artturi Lehkonen's goal.

The Wild are 2-0-1 in their last three and 6 points out of a playoff spot with 18 games remaining.

• In a 1-1 game, Mats Zuccarello was awarded a penalty kick with 5:55 left when Andrew Cogliano hit a broken stick toward Zuccarello with the puck. Zuccarello feinted and gave himself an open side of the cage, but dropped his backhand from the side of the net. Kaprizov then hit the post with five minutes to go and was suspended on a breakaway with 4:45 to go.

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• Devon Toews thought he had scored the winning goal with 2:20 left, but the Wild claimed offside and the goal was disallowed.

• Zach Parise, the Wild's third-leading scorer and leading scorer, was unable to play due to a lower-body injury suffered against the Detroit Red Wings. Parise will retire after this season and has only one game remaining scheduled against the Wild (April 4 at St. Paul).

• Jake Middleton's call was game time, but after rushing down the line, he pressured Dakota Mermis to let Mermis know he was going to play. Middleton missed his second straight game due to an upper body injury.

• The Wild returned to Minnesota after the game and will open a three-game series against the Nashville Predators, Arizona Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks starting Sunday afternoon.

Wilde has worked their tails off

In a game that could have been quickly derailed after Gustafsson opened his wicket wide enough for Lehkonen to drive a yachter on Colorado's first shift of the game, the Wild settled down nicely. They went to work after an early shift in which Jack Johnson tossed every fourth-line forward like a rag doll. But the Wild scored hard, played organized, and limited the chances of a Colorado team that entered the game with a 55-goal lead at home and a 25-6 record at home and 4.35 goals per game at Ball Arena. Finally, despite that early 1-0 gap, Joel Eriksson Ek won a battle on the board and Kaprizov fed Faber to score the equalizer. The Wild created a lot of five-on-five chances.

Duhaime puts the embarrassment aside

Of all the Avs, Duhaime stood out the most despite the embarrassment of having to play with his former teammates a day after being traded for the first time in his young career. He was first on the board on Colorado's 4-for-4 penalty kill and had one shift in the second half where he was in the middle of three Avalanche chances, including a nice shot that Gustafsson denied. He showed a lot of the things Avs general manager Chris McFarland coveted. McFarland said The athlete He had been trying to get Duhaime from the Wild for six weeks.

Wilde mostly watches McKinnon

Holding McKinnon to one assist in regulation (and another for the overtime winner) isn't too bad considering the incredible performance he's had during this potential Hart Trophy season. The Avs star tallied a career-high 70th assist this season, but this is a player who has been dominant in every way at home. He entered the game with 22 multi-point games in 31 at home, five 4-point games, zero scoreless games, 26 goals and 43 assists as well as 19 in Denver. He tried to will the Avs at times, especially after Faber's equalizer, but Wild and Gustafsson wouldn't let him.

Three stars

1. Alexander Georgiev, Avalanche: In a game where the Avs were heavily outgunned and outgunned by the Wild, Colorado's goaltender was excellent in robbing the Wild of several goals, especially Kaprizov with 4:45 remaining on a breakaway.

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2. Philip Gustafsson, Wilde: After a rough start by giving up a goal on Colorado's first shot, Gustafsson was impressive the rest of the way, especially considering MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen combined for 15 shots.

3. Brooke Faber, Wilde: Faber had a tough first shift, but was solid as a rock defensively and scored the equalizer.

Quote from the game

“A tough confrontation against a good, new hockey team. It's that time of year where we need two points. But obviously Jose played great and we gave ourselves a chance to win. It's obviously frustrating, though. We need these two points.” — Brooke Faber

(Photo by Philip Gustafsson and Mikko Rantanen: Isaiah J. Downing/USA Today)

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