Rapid Recap: Avalanche 5, Wild 1

The Colorado Avalanche opened its four-game series against the Minnesota Wild with a 5-1 victory at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Logan O'Connor and Mikko Rantanen both scored in the first four minutes of the first and second periods, respectively, and Joonas Donskoi tallied a power-play goal with 17 seconds remaining in the first period. Brandon Saad scored with 7:43 left in the third and J.T. Compher knocked in a man-advantage marker with less than six minutes to play.
Saad also had an assist in the game for his third straight multi-point performance. Andre Burakovsky, Samuel Girard and Nathan MacKinnon both recorded multiple points with two helpers apiece, while Rantanen added an assist to goo along his goal.

Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer stopped 19-of-20 shots.
Matt Dumba tallied for the Wild at 6:50 of the opening period to tie the game at 1-1 at the time.
The Avs have won three in a row and improve to 6-3-0 on the season.
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Highlights

THE GOALS

1st Period
3:02 COL (1-0) - Logan O'Connor's shot from the left point hit the goalie's loose stick on the ice and deflected into the back of the cage to open the game's scoring.
6:50 MIN (1-1) - Matt Dumba tied the game for the Wild with a wrist shot from the right circle.
19:43 COL (2-1) - PPG, Joonas Donskoi scored on a shot that went five-hole from the low slot after quick passes with Brandon Saad and Andre Burakovsky.
2nd Period
3:07 COL (3-1) - Mikko Rantanen took a pass from Nathan MacKinnon and scored on a wrist shot from the left circle that went far side.
3rd Period
12:17 COL (4-1) - Brandon Saad scored his fourth of the season with a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Nathan MacKinnon.
14:55 COL (5-1) - PPG, J.T. Compher was the recipient of a long, cross pass from Andre Burakovsky and fired a shot into an open area of the net.
Final: Avalanche - 5 | Wild - 1

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 2 for 7
Minnesota: 0 for 2

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Philipp Grubauer started for the fifth straight contest and made 19-of-20 saves.
Minnesota: Kappo Kahkonen played in his sixth game of the season and stopped 28-of-33 shots.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Mikko Rantanen has scored in all five road games this season, becoming the first player in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history to tally in each of the team's first five road games in a campaign.
Rantanen is the sixth NHL player to accomplish the feat in the last 20 years, with Minnesota's Chris Stewart last doing it in 2017-18.

NOTEBOOK

The Avalanche was beginning its first-ever four-game series against an opponent during the regular season. Colorado and Minnesota will meet eight times this season… Cale Makar recorded his 10th assist of the season in his ninth game. Only John-Michael Liles in 2010-11 reached the 10-helper mark in fewer contests (eight games) in franchise history… Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to four games (five assists), while Andre Burakovsky (one goal, four assists), Joonas Donskoi (two goals, one assist), Cale Makar (five assists) and Brandon Saad (three goals, three assists) are on three-game point streaks. Saad has recorded multple points in each of the three contests... Rookie Bowen Byram appeared in his sixth NHL game… Colorado killed both Wild power plays and have now killed off 19 straight penalties... The Avs were beginning its second of seven back-to-back sets this season, improving to 1-1-0 in the first contest.

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

ROSTER REPORT

Logan O'Connor made his season debut and played on the fourth line with Tyson Jost at center and Kiefer Sherwood on the other wing. Defenseman Conor Timmins returned to the lineup and began the contest on a defensive pairing with Ryan Graves.

INJURY UPDATE

Erik Johnson suffered an upper-body injury midway through the first period and did not return to the game. Forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and defenseman Devon Toews missed their first games of the season. Bellemare will miss some time after sustaining a lower-body injury in Colorado's previous contest on Thursday while Toews didn't make the trip to Minnesota after blocking a shot in the third period of that game versus San Jose. Matt Calvert (upper body) and Pavel Francouz (lower body) are both out indefinitely.

UP NEXT

The Avs and Wild meet for the second of their four-game regular-season series on Sunday at 6 p.m. MT at Xcel Energy Center. Colorado and Minnesota will be playing each other on back-to-back nights in the same building for the first time in their all-time history. The teams conclude the series on Tuesday and Thursday at Ball Arena.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on the start of the game
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
44 Kiefer Sherwood - 17 Tyson Jost - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
49 Samuel Girard - 8 Cale Makar
4 Bowen Byram - 6 Erik Johnson
27 Ryan Graves - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
32 Hunter Miska