The Minnesota Wild are back in the playoffs after defeating the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 in St. Paul. It was the proverbial four-point swing game, with the Wild now holding onto the No. 8 seed in the playoffs and a game in hand over the Avs.
Colorado struck first with a powerplay goal by Jarome Iginla 33 seconds into the game. But Minnesota’s third line struck back with Nino Niederreiter, Jason Pominville and Erik Haula all scoring before the end of the first period.
The Avalanche tied it up in the second with goals from Chris Bigras and Cody McLeod, but Charlie Coyle’s tally at 5:34 in the third gave Minnesota a 4-3 lead and two empty-netters by Coyle and Niederreiter sealed the game.
“Enough can’t be said about Zach [Parise] and Mikko [Koivu] and just me being at the end of it,” said Coyle, who has 11 goals in his past 18 games and leads the team with 21. “I mean, I get the goal. But those guys do the work, they make the plays.”
“We know [Colorado’s] weakness is definitely defensively,” Niederreiter added, “and that’s what we [had] to take advantage of.”
[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press]
