Pick your hero, Wild has plenty of them in win over Avs

At the end of yet another dominating victory, which concluded an outstanding 4-1 road trip, it's difficult to identify just one or two reasons why the Minnesota Wild looks like a team that could do some damage in a 56-game season.
Ten different players found the scoresheet on Wednesday, including five that had multi-point games. And don't forget goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen, making his fifth consecutive start, stopping 30 of 32 shots in a 6-2 Wild victory over the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena.
Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist and was a plus-3, extending his points streak to four games since being moved from fourth-line winger to the center position.

Hartman's linemate, Marcus Foligno, scored a shorthanded goal and had an assist, and was only a fight short of logging back-to-back Gordie Howe Hat Tricks.
Nico Sturm scored his first regular season goal, then added his second less than five minutes later to round out scoring.

Zach Parise snapped a nine-game goal drought but was fantastic for a second consecutive game, finishing the trip a plus-3.
Kirill Kaprizov had two assists and one eye-popping shift where he circled the net five times before jamming a wraparound effort between the goalie's glove and the post.
Mats Zuccarello, of course, continued his torrid reintroduction to the lineup by scoring the first goal of the game, then assisting on Hartman's third-period goal that was a real backbreaker.
Then there was Kahkonen, who was stellar for Minnesota in a back-and-forth first period, keeping Colorado off the board until the Wild had built a 1-0 lead. Minnesota improved to 8-1-0 when scoring first this season.

That beer can-holding guzzler helmet the Wild hands out to its player of the game? Good luck finding just one person worthy of it on this night. Might as well draw a name out of a hat, because they were all equally worthy.
"Everybody is playing," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "So everybody feels a part of it and everybody is contributing. It's awesome. We talked about it this morning, but you want to score goals. Players want to score goals, they want to have fun, and when you score goals, it feels real, real good."
If scoring goals translates to fun, Minnesota has certainly had its fair share of late. Over the final three games of the trip, the Wild scored 17 of them, with 11 different guys lighting the lamp over the past three games.

"I thought we played well tonight. We did a good job against their top players," Parise said. "Our offense has been converting lately, chances we felt like we were missing earlier in the season, we're connecting on them. That's been the big difference to me."
Lost in the shuffle of the offensive bonanza the past handful of games has been the steady play of the rookie Kahkonen.
Forced into action early in the trip because of Cam Talbot's presence on the COVID-19 protocol list, Evason has chosen to ride his hot goaltender even with Talbot back in the mix.
The veteran, signed to be Minnesota's No. 1 last offseason, has been available to play in each of the past two games, but with Kahkonen playing well, Evason has continued to his young netminder between the posts.
The decision has paid off handsomely, to the tune of a 4-1-0 record, a .934 save percentage and a 1.82 goals-against average on the road trip.
The question now is whether Evason comes back with Kahkonen again on Friday night when Minnesota returns home for the first time in nearly a month to begin a two-game, back-to-back set against the Kings ... a matchup featuring two of the hottest teams in the entire NHL.
"Four wins in five games on this trip, that's all that matters to me," Kahkonen said. "I don't care about how they come. I've been feeling really good about my game, but also, everybody has been contributing. Everybody is playing well and guys are having fun."
Early on, it looked like the scorching hot line of Zuccarello, Kaprizov and Victor Rask would be the ones to power the Wild on Wednesday night.

Almost 10 minutes into the game, Kaprizov picked the pocked of Avs defenseman Connor Timmins at the blueline and started a 3-on-1 rush with his linemates. The trio dished the puck in tic-tac-toe-like fashion, with Kaprizov adding an extra pass across the crease to Zuccarello, who momentarily lost control, regathered himself, then fired from an impossible angle between goaltender Phillip Grubauer and the post for a 1-0 lead.
Minnesota outshot Colorado 11-10 in the low-scoring, high-energy period.
The Avs tied it on J.T. Compher's goal seven minutes into the second, as the Wild failed to even get a shot on goal until past the halfway point of the frame.
But Parise's deflection changed the direction of the game. Foligno added a shorthanded marker 2:40 later and it was 3-1 after two.

Nazem Kadri got Colorado within one goal three minutes into the third and the Avalanche appeared ready to push for the tying goal, before Kaprizov fed Hartman with a ridiculous pass in front of the goal. A quick deke and a flip of the puck later, it was 4-2.
Sturm scored on a breakaway just 57 seconds after that, and as the Wild has made a habit of doing lately, any time games have gotten even remotely hairy, it has been able to add an exclamation point or two to put the game right back out of reach.
If the Wild can manage to get itself into a playoff berth at the end of this unusually quick season, look no further than this critical road trip.
Said Parise: "We feel pretty good about the way we've been playing and the direction that we're going."
Related:
Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 6, Avalanche 2