Avalanche outlast Wild in high-scoring Game 1 of Western 2nd Round

DENVER -- Cale Makar scored twice in the third period and had an assist for the Colorado Avalanche, who recovered for a 9-6 win against the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round at Ball Arena on Sunday.

Makar had left the game early in the first period after taking a hit along the end boards from Wild forward Marcus Foligno before returning for the second.

“You got to give him a lot of credit, right? Comes back, not feeling great after the injury in the first, gets sorted out and taken care of and comes back and has a great finish to the game,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Took him a little while to get engaged again, maybe tentative, and then he was like, ‘I can do this,’ and he played great and makes a couple of huge plays."

Said Makar: “I was just trying to get back and feel good. It’s not fun when you kind of tweak something, but it happens. Got to be ready for it. I had to check a couple things out, make sure it was good to go. Felt good.”

Devon Toews had a goal and three assists, Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists, and Sam Malinski and Artturi Lehkonen each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who are the No. 1 seed from the Central Division and Western Conference. Martin Necas had three assists, and Scott Wedgewood made 30 saves.

“It's not that we weren't emotionally engaged in the game and physically engaged in the game, because I think we were, but not enough on the defensive side,” Bednar said. “We were on the offensive side. Forecheck looked good. We did some good things, but like when it came to the defending, I feel like we forgot a little bit just how hard we need to work to be good defensively.”

Quinn Hughes had a goal and two assists, and Ryan Hartman, Mats Zuccarello, Johansson, Vladimir Tarasenko and Foligno scored for the Wild, who are the No. 3 seed from the Central. Jesper Wallstedt made 34 saves.

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be here on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“Listen, the game was helter-skelter. We lost the game. There’s certain areas we got to clean up and be ready to clean up,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “If you lose a game, you’ve got to take the lessons out of it, move on. If you win a game, you’ve got to take the lessons out of it and continue to move on. That’s what playoff hockey is."

Malinski gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 11:12 of the first period when he roofed a wrist shot from the right circle short side over Wallstedt's left shoulder.

“It feels good just to get back into it,” Malinski said. “I think we all were pretty antsy to get playing again and wanted to make sure we didn’t have too slow of a start, which we didn’t."

Jack Drury extended it to 2-0 just a short time later at 12:04. Wild defenseman Jake Middleton whiffed on a clearing attempt in the right corner, and Logan O'Connor retrieved the puck and sent a backhand feed to Drury, who put a shot off the far post from the bottom of the right circle.

Lehkonen made it 3-0 with a power-play goal at 13:13. MacKinnon's initial shot was stopped by Wallstedt, but he got his own rebound, drew the goaltender out of position and then passed back to Lehkonen, who scored through the legs of Jared Spurgeon into an open net from the left circle.

“Depth is going to be critical. That’s the way you’re going to win,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “You’re going to need everybody. Tonight, we got offensive contributions from everybody, and now we need to make sure we get the defensive game out of everybody. I know a lot of us can be better there.”

Johansson cut it to 3-1 at 15:02. He intercepted Nicolas Roy’s clearing attempt in the slot before scoring with a turnaround shot through traffic.

Hartman made it to 3-2 at 16:04 when he tapped in a backhand centering pass from Hughes.

“We scored six goals [against] a really good team. Normally you should win those games, but it wasn’t one of those days,” Zuccarello said. “We need to help out ‘Wally’ more and focus on some details in the D-zone and off the rush and clean that up, for sure.”

Nick Blankenburg pushed it to 4-2 at 4:16 of the second period, taking a saucer pass from Valeri Nichushkin and shooting under Wallstedt's glove on a 2-on-1 rush.

“That's what this team lives off of is their speed and their creativity and their playmaking ability, and we gave them too much of that,” Wild defenseman Brock Faber said. “When we beat this team, we stay on top of their guys and don't give them space, and tonight we didn't do that. I thought we took it to them at times, and we just couldn't slow them down. We can slow them down, though. We know what we need to do, and we got to clean it up. They definitely had the upper hand tonight, but I think come Game 2 will be ready to go.”

Tarasenko cut it to 4-3 at 6:45. He got behind Blankenburg on a rush, took a backhand pass from Yakov Trenin, and moved the puck to his backhand before tucking it in past Wedgewood's left pad.

Hughes tied it 4-4 at 12:43 with a wrist shot from the high slot that deflected off the stick of Nazem Kadri and beat a screened Wedgewood glove side.

Foligno then scored a short-handed goal to put the Wild ahead 5-4 at 16:55. MacKinnon missed a drop pass from Landeskog at the blue line, and Foligno chased it down before finishing a backhand deke at the right post on a breakaway.

“Just a little surprised, to be honest with you, just to see like how they all stopped skating, and I just had a puck all by myself,” Foligno said. “I saw Wedgewood wasn't coming out, so just tried to get up there as fast as I could. I was thinking it might be a 2-on-0 with my brother. He held off. He just said to take it, and just a good deke. I mean, I think he was thinking I was shooting, but he's an aggressive goalie and he's got some good hands.

“I think I just maybe saw (Tarasenko's) move where he commits the one side pretty heavy. So, if you can come back, you get some room there. So, that's kind of my thought process kind of going in there, and just thankful it worked out.”

Toews quickly tied it 5-5 at 18:04 with a wrist shot from the high slot that broke the stick of Michael McCarron and bounced past the right toe of Wallstedt shortly after a power play expired.

Makar gave the Avalanche the lead back, 6-5, at 3:21 of the third period. Following a face-off win by Landeskog, Makar buried a shot from the right circle that went in off the far post.

“I’m just trying to shoot where I see open lanes,” Makar said. “Both of those plays we did a really good job creating space up high and then finding those seams. (Toews), great pass, and Nate off the face-off. For me it’s just trying to get pucks there, and hopefully either, if not score, get rebounds and hopefully get guys there.”

Kadri extended it to 7-5 at 5:43, beating Wallstedt under his glove from the right circle on a partial breakaway after being sprung by Ross Colton.

“Been watching a lot of this goaltender, so picked my spot, and definitely picked it properly,” Kadri said. “We certainly wanted to come in and challenge him and force him to make some good saves, and I'm happy we're able to get on the board quite a few times today.”

Zuccarello got the Wild to within 7-6 at 16:01. Matt Boldy sent a backhand pass toward the low slot, where it bounced off the knee of Zuccarello and over the glove of Wedgewood.

Makar scored his second of the period to make it 8-6 at 17:06, and MacKinnon shot into the empty net at 17:52 for the 9-6 final.

“I think there was multiple goals on things that we could have done a better job on," Hynes said. "To me, that’s positive. We pushed back and came back. That’s what we do. That’s who we are. I think those are positives. But you have to be on point with attention to detail against this team, and if you’re not, you leave yourself vulnerable to give up chances. And we gave up some chances and they capitalized on them. So for me, a lot of the issues tonight for us are fixable.”

NOTES: The Avalanche became the fifth team in NHL history to get at least 10 points from defensemen in a playoff game, and the first since the Edmonton Oilers got 12 points in Game 1 of 1985 conference final.