Wild dominant in first win of exhibition season

ST. PAUL -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau wanted a good start. He wanted to see a better effort. He wanted to see his team get its first victory of the exhibition season.
Check. Check. And check.
Minnesota played its best preseason game so far in a dominating 7-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

"That's the idea of it, to get them in a rhythm," Boudreau said. "But at the same time, it's not that we beat Colorado at its best."
The Avalanche traveled a lineup that was missing most of its big-name players. The exception to that rule was goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who started and played all 60 minutes for Colorado.

But with little help elsewhere in the lineup, the Wild scored early, then scored often, in a game where Minnesota outshot the Avs 33-16.
If nothing else, it will be a big confidence boost for the team -- and specifically, Charlie Coyle -- who led the Wild offensively by netting a hat trick.

"That's what preseason is for. You want to create the good habits, kind of get out of that summer mode. Get the cobwebs out," Coyle said. "To do that and feel good with the legs and just gain that chemistry with the guys you're playing with and get rewarded for it, it obviously pays off and it helps the confidence."

Through three preseason contests, the script has been remarkably similar for the Wild. A sleepy first 10 minutes, followed by a real solid next 40, followed by a final 10 where the team has surrendered the tying and/or winning goals.
Minnesota had no reason to worry against the Avs on Saturday.

The puck was in the offensive zone for virtually the entire first period and the Wild left the period with a 1-0 lead on a goal by Jason Zucker.

Things got better for the Wild in the second, specifically for Coyle. After Matt Read finished off an outstanding no-look pass from Jared Spurgeon, Coyle scored the first of two goals of his hat trick before the end of business in the middle period.

Mikko Koivu made it 5-0 just 28 seconds into the third before Coyle whipped a puck into an open cage less than two minutes later, finishing off a pass from Jonas Brodin.

Zach Parise capped scoring for the Wild, his second of the preseason.
"You want that obviously. Al [Stalock] played really good back there. … It's huge for everyone. Obviously it builds confidence for everyone when you win games like that," Coyle said. "After the first period, we started to play more the right way and doing the right things and you get rewarded for it. That's a good learning tip within winning, so we'll take that."
Stalock stopped five shots in the first, seven more in the second and four over the final 20 minutes for the shutout. Locked in a battle with Andrew Hammond for the backup job behind Devan Dubnyk, the performance was certainly helpful to his cause.
More importantly, he said, the Wild was able to get an important first win, even if its just the exhibition season.
"We played a good 60 minutes and we talked about that right away, let's play 60 minutes, not 40, not 55, not 50, and we did it," Stalock said. "Beyond that, I think just winning. Obviously, we hadn't won yet and just to get a win, that's essentially what you're paid to do in this league is win games."

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