Avalanche Opens Four-Game Set with Wild in Minnesota

The Colorado Avalanche travels to St. Paul to begin its four-game set against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. It is the first of back-to-back games before the clubs finish the series on Tuesday and Thursday in Denver.
The Avs (5-3-0) earned their first two-game series sweep of the season this past week, defeating the San Jose Sharks 7-3 on Tuesday and 3-0 on Thursday. Goaltender Philipp Grubauer collected his second shutout and fifth win of the campaign, denying all 21 shots in the contests. After being knotted up at 0-0 through the first two frames, Nazem Kadri scored to break the tie and finished with two goals and an assist, earning his first game-winning-goal of the season and 23rd of his career. The second line didn't stop there as Andre Burakovsky tallied his third goal of the campaign and Brandon Saad picked up two assists.

Minnesota split its two-game set versus the Los Angeles Kings and are coming off a 5-3 victory on Thursday. Eleven different players registered at least a point for the club, while Marcus Johansson (one goal, one assist) and Jonas Brodin (two assists) recorded multi-point games. The Wild is in the midst of its season-long, six-game homestand, going 2-2-0 through its first four contests at home.

Avalanche vs. Minnesota Wild

Xcel Energy Center | St. Paul, Minn.
| Game Time: | 6:00 p.m. | | --- | --- | | TV: | Altitude (blackouts apply), Fox-Sports North (MIN) | | Radio: | Altitude Sports Radio, FM 92.5 (KKSE) | | Live Streams: | AltitudeNow.com, Official app (blackouts apply to all) | | Online Audio: | Listen Live Here | | Follow: | @Avalanche, Official app, Gamecenter |

COLORADO-MINNESOTA CONNECTIONS

Erik Johnson is from Bloomington, Minnesota, and played one season at the University of Minnesota (2006-07)... Greg Pateryn spent the last two-plus seasons with the Wild… Avalanche netminder Hunter Miska is from North Branch, Minnesota and played at Minnesota Duluth (2016-17)… Wild defenseman Ian Cole spent the last two-plus seasons with Colorado… Wild assistant coaches Darby Hendrickson (2003-2004) and Brett McLean (2005-2007) played for the Avs.

HISTORY

Last year, the Avs and Wild split the regular-season series as each club won a game at home and one on the road. Nathan MacKinnon (two goals, three assists) and Cale Makar (two goals, three assists) led the charge offensively for the Avs, while Ryan Suter (two goals, three assists) was the leading scorer for Minnesota.
The Avalanche owns a 50-43-13 all-time record versus the Wild, including a 23-21-9 mark on the road. The rivals face off as division foes for the 20th consecutive season. Since the Wild joined the NHL in 2000-01, Colorado is the only team to be a division opponent against the team in every season.
This year will mark the fourth time that the Avalanche and Wild meet eight times during the regular season as the clubs also faced off eight times in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08.

ROSTER REPORT

The Avalanche made a couple roster transactions before heading to Minnesota, with the team recalling forwards Shane Bowers and Sheldon Dries and defenseman Jacob MacDonald from the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles to the club's taxi squad for the trip. Colorado's taxi unit also includes Greg Pateryn, Logan O'Connor and Adam Werner.

INJURY UPDATE

Forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare suffered a lower-body injury in Thursday's game against the Sharks and will miss some time. Defenseman Devon Toews blocked a shot in the third period of the contest and his status for Saturday's outing has yet to be determined. Goaltender Pavel Francouz (lower body) and forward Matt Calvert (upper body) are both out indefinitely.

SCOUTING THE WILD

Minnesota is coming off of a 77-point season in 2019-20, finishing sixth in the Central Division with a 35-27-7 record. The club faced the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers and fell in four games in the best-of-five series.
In 2020-21, the Wild sport a 5-3-0 record; the best mark through its first eight games of a season since 2016-17 (5-2-1). Joel Eriksson Ek scored his team-leading fifth goal of the season on Thursday and ranks first in scoring with eight points. Forward Kirill Kaprizov (two goals, five assists) leads all rookies in scoring and is accompanied by Jordan Greenway (one goal, six assists) for the second most points on the squad. Kevin Fiala will not be able to play in the contest after he was suspended for three games for boarding Los Angeles' Matt Roy on Thursday.
The Wild hold a 6-4-0 mark in its last 10 outings when hosting the Avs.

(OPPOSING) PLAYER TO WATCH: ZACH PARISE

Zach Parise has tallied two goals and two assists in eight games this season, tied with Jonas Brodin for fifth in points on the Wild. The forward is in his 16th NHL season (ninth with Minnesota) and has tallied 796 points (388 goals, 408 assists) in 1,023 games. Parise ranks third in all-time scoring by a Wild player, totaling 194 goals and 192 helpers in 386 contests with the club.
As a member of the Wild, the veteran has averaged 1.06 points per game against Colorado in 33 games and owns the second-most points all-time by a Wild player versus the Avalanche, registering 35 points (16 goals, 19 assists).

NUMBERS GAME

4

Mikko Rantanen is tied with Philadelphia Flyers' James Van Riemsdyk, Toronto Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews, and Edmonton Oilers' Leon Draisaitl for the second-most goals on the road this season with four markers in four games. It took him 10 away games last season to reach the four-goal mark.

36

Nathan MacKinnon leads the league in shots on goal with 36. MacKinnon has tallied the most shots on net for the past two seasons and registered a shot on goal for the 228th straight regular-season game on Thursday, breaking Joe Sakic's franchise record of 227 consecutive games with a shot on goal.

90.3

The Avs penalty kill has killed 90.3 percent (28-for-31) of power plays this season, ranking third in the league. The man-down unit has survived 17 consecutive penalties, while not allowing a power-goal on home ice this season (15-for-15).

NOTEBOOK

The Wild are the first team that the Avalanche will play four consecutive regular-season games against… The Avs and Wild have faced off 126 times (106 regular season, 20 playoffs) in their history, by far the most common opponent for either team since Minnesota entered the league… The Avalanche and Wild have played on consecutive nights in the regular season on three occasions but never both in the same building (all were home-and-home sets). However, they did it once in the postseason during the 2008 Western Conference Quarterfinal. Games 3-4 were on back-to-back nights in Denver (April 14-15, 2008)… Saturday's contest is the beginning of Colorado's second back-to-back set this season. The club will play seven such consecutive series this season and in 12 such sets last year, the Avs finished with a 9-3-0 record in the first contest… Nazem Kadri is one point away from his 400th career point… Phillip Grubauer is tied with Toronto Maple Leafs' Fredrik Andersen for the lead league in wins with five… Brandon Saad recorded his second straight multi-point game for the first time since Dec. 12-14, 2018.