Game Recap: Wild 5, Avs 2

DENVER -- Matt Boldy had two goals and two assists, and Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the Minnesota Wild, who extended their winning streak to six games with a 5-2 victory against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Thursday.

"It speaks to our team and what we're all about. I think the way we play, from top to bottom, [we’re] an unbelievable team that pushes the pace and has so much offensive ability,” Boldy said. “And the shot blocking, the getting pucks out, and just sticking with it and being stingy back there, I think, everyone was doing it, and that's the important part.”

Joel Eriksson Ek scored two power-play goals, Quinn Hughes had an assist to extend his point and assist streaks to 11 games, and Kirill Kaprizov had two assists for the Wild (35-14-10), who are 7-0-1 in their past eight games.

“The focus today really was just, I think, coming in after the break,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “First time we're all together as a group, obviously, with the guys coming back, and we knew we're playing a good opponent. But it's not about that. It's about coming back together as a group and trying to establish a strong game and get ourselves back collectively clicking as a group. And I thought, for the most part, I think the guys did a really good job of that.”

Gustavsson, who became ill during the course of the game, was replaced at 18:56 of the third period by Jesper Wallstedt, who allowed one goal on two shots in 1:04 of relief.

“I think it came up really later, like even in between periods,” Hynes said. “We didn't know. I think it just came on maybe late, mid-to-late in the third period. Obviously, he came up with some big saves for us throughout the game, and then later in the game, obviously, playing through the illness. So, it was a gutsy effort by him.”

Martin Necas scored twice, and Nathan MacKinnon had two assists for the Avalanche (38-10-9), who had won three of four, including a 4-2 win at the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday. Mackenzie Blackwood made 31 saves.

“We took six [penalties]. Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs, right? And, yeah, I thought the PK did an OK job,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I think you have to expect to play your best hockey game in order to beat a team like Minny [or] Dallas, amongst others, and I didn't think we were at our best tonight. Again, there were some things I liked, but probably too much I didn't like, and one of them was the discipline and the penalties we took."

Eriksson Ek scored on the power play to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 7:48 of the second period. He located the rebound of Boldy’s initial shot off the right pad of Blackwood and snapped it into the open net.

“The power play was a big difference, obviously, to get us on the board early,” Hynes said. “So that's a good step coming out of the break where your special teams have a good night for you. I think that's also something that you can build positively on as well.”

Necas tied it 1-1 at 13:30 after his wrist shot from the right dot went top shelf short side off MacKinnon’s drop pass inside the blue line.

"I think for us, obviously, these are important games and points. We know that, but I think for us, it doesn't really change our approach or anything like that,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “It's just we have to be a few percent better, that's for sure, but at the end of the day, just they earned their bounces tonight and we did not.”

Eriksson Ek’s second power-play goal put the Wild back ahead 2-1 at 17:37. His centering pass from below the right circle caromed off the right foot of Blackwood and went in five-hole.

Mats Zuccarello extended it to 3-1 at 15:08 of the third period when his cross-crease pass banked off the skate of Avalanche defenseman Sam Malinski in his own crease and went past the left leg of Blackwood.

“You forget that we finished, I think, 8-1-1. Won five straight, now six straight. Beat these guys. It's fun,” Hughes said. “I think we're really good. I mean, we played a good game. They played pretty good. Goalie for us was unbelievable. Our power play was decent.”

Boldy scored a short-handed, empty-net goal at 16:38 to push it to 4-1 after intercepting MacKinnon’s crossing pass near the blue line.

Necas cut it to 4-2 at 19:03 when he one-timed a crossing pass short side with Blackwood pulled for the extra skater.

“It took us a while to really start tilting the ice. I felt like it wasn't until the third where we really started cranking it on, but [their] goalie made some big saves,” Landeskog said. “It was hard to crack him. I felt like we had some good looks. At the end of the day, the margin for error's small, and it's only going to get smaller this time of year.”

Boldy scored into an empty net again at 19:28 for the 5-2 final.

“I don't think it's about catching people. I think it's about growing our game to get it to the best place it can possibly be,” Boldy said. “That's the biggest thing for us. I think the better we can grow our game and kind of keep improving and finding ways to play as a team, then that stuff just happens and it falls into place.”

Colorado forward Joel Kiviranta left the game at 9:33 of the second period after a hit from Zach Bogosian in the offensive zone and did not return.

“We'll know more tomorrow. He's still kind of getting looked at and figuring out, but we'll see how he presents tomorrow morning,” said Bedar.

NOTES: Boldy recorded his fifth career four-point game and tied Zuccarello for the second most in franchise history behind Marian Gaborik (seven games), and also became the first player in Wild history to record four or more points in consecutive games. … Eriksson Ek recorded his 14th multigoal game with Minnesota and tied Nino Niederreiter for the eighth most in Wild history. … Hughes became the third player over the past five seasons to record a point streak of 11 or more games in their first season with a franchise (Mikael Granlund (13 games with San Jose in 2023-24) and Pavel Buchnevich (12 games with St. Louis in 2021-22). … Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns tied Jarome Iginla (1,554 games) for 15th place on the NHL’s all-time games played list.