Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Colorado

The essentials

DENVER -- The Wild will play its final game before an eight-day layoff on Wednesday when it takes on the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.
The League's All-Star break commences Thursday, with the brightest stars in the NHL convening in San Jose for the skills competition on Friday and the game itself on Saturday.
Following the All-Star break, Minnesota will begin its five-day bye week, and will not be on the ice again until the afternoon of Jan. 31, when it hosts a practice before a flight to Dallas.

With a lengthy layoff in the cards, Minnesota is eager to scoop up as many points as it can to help weather any movement in the Central Division standings during the time away.
A 4-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday, combined with Colorado's 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators moved the Wild into third place in the Central, one point ahead of both the Avs and the Dallas Stars, who are currently enjoying their bye week.
A victory by Minnesota could move the Wild to within seven points of the second-place Predators, pending Nashville's result in Vegas on Wednesday, but more importantly, would give the Wild some needed space between the teams behind it.
"I've felt urgency since game six, so it's nothing different," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said prior to Minnesota's win over the Golden Knights. "If you have success in these two games, you're not going to lose much ground because everyone is pretty much on the break and not playing a lot of games.
"It's important for us because when you do have the break, you're not gaining points by sitting out for eight days. You've gotta make hay when the sun shines."
Colorado is finishing a three-game homestand following a 7-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings last Saturday and Monday's loss to the Predators.
After a strong start to the season, the Avs have faltered a bit over the past couple of weeks, posting a 3-6-1 record over its past 10 games, including a 2-4-1 mark at Pepsi Center since Dec. 21.
Six players in the NHL have at least 70 points this season and two of them play for Colorado. Only Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov has more points than the Avs' Mikko Rantanen, who is tied for second in scoring with 73 points. Nathan MacKinnon is tied for fifth with 70 points.
Gabriel Landeskog has 54 points, including a team-best 29 goals, and is 18th in the NHL's scoring race.
Semyon Varlamov has seen more action between the posts this season, starting 31 games, while Philipp Grubauer has started 18 contests.
Varlamov is 13-12-5 with a 2.82 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage while Grubauer is 9-5-3 with a 3.29 goals against and a .895 saves mark.

Follow the leader

Wild captain Mikko Koivu tallied his 200th career NHL goal Monday at Vegas to become the second player in team history to reach the milestone (Marian Gaborik, 219).
Per NHL Stats, Mikko and Saku (255) Koivu are the 14th set of brothers in NHL history to each score at least 200 career goals.
Koivu tallied a power-play goal and an assist Dec. 31 vs. PIT to tie Marian Gaborik for the most PPG in franchise history (59).
The native of Turku, Finland, ranks first amongst active Finnish players in games played, goals, assists and points and ranks first in franchise history in games played, points, assists, plus/minus rating, shots on goal, PPP, SHP and multi-point games.

Duby, Duby, doo

Devan Dubnyk has stopped 64-of-67 shots faced in his last three games going 2-0-0 with a 1.05 GAA and a .955 SV% and is 5-1-0 with a 2.47 GAA, a .922 SV% and one shutout in his last six road starts.
He leads all NHL goalies in road wins since Dec. 29 and ranks T-6th in the NHL in wins overall.

Series notes

All-Time Wild Record: 50-39-11 (28-17-5 at Xcel Energy Center, 22-22-6 at Colorado)
2018-19: The Wild opened its season against the Avalanche with a 4-1 loss at Pepsi Center (10/4) before earning a 3-2 victory in the second meeting at Xcel Energy Center (10/27)…RW Mikael Granlund (1-1=2) and C Eric Staal (1-1=2) each lead Minnesota with two points…D Jonas Brodin and LW Zach Parise have scored a goal apiece….G Devan Dubnyk is 1-1-0 with a 2.01 GAA and a .943 SV% in two starts…RW Mikko Rantanen leads Colorado with three points (1-2=3)…LW Gabriel Landeskog (1-1=2) and C Carl Soderberg (1-1=2) have two points apiece…G Semyon Varlamov is 1-1-0 with a 1.53 GAA and a .938 SV% in two starts.
WILD LEADERS: C Mikko Koivu leads the Wild with 47 points (18-29=47) in 69 games against Colorado…Parise owns 34 points (15-19=34) in 34 contests…D Ryan Suter has 30 points (2-28=30) in 59 matches…Granlund owns 21 points (5-16=21) in 25 games…C Charlie Coyle has 15 points (8-7=15) in 29 contests.
WILD GOALIES:Dubnyk is 17-12-1 with a 2.40 GAA, a .924 SV% and four shutouts in 32 career starts vs. the Avalanche - his most wins and shutouts against an NHL team…G Alex Stalock is 3-2-0 with a 2.08 GAA and a .913 SV% in seven games (four starts).
AVALANCHE LEADERS: Landeskog leads the Avalanche with 25 points (12-13=25) in 35 matches against Minnesota…C Nathan MacKinnon has 20 points (9-11=20) in 24 games… Rantanen has 15 points (5-10=15) in 12 matches…C Colin Wilson owns 13 points (4-9=13) in 34 contests.
AVALANCHE GOALIES: Varlamov is 12-13-1 with a 2.28 GAA, a .927 SV% and one shutout in 27 games (26 starts) vs. the Wild…G Philipp Grubauer won his sole career start making 32 saves (2/15/18).

Did you know?

Minnesota has 111 points and 50 wins against Colorado all-time, its second-most points and wins against any franchise…The Wild is 13-7-1 record against the Avalanche in the last 21 matches, including six shutout victories…Minnesota has outscored Colorado, 57-49, and has outshot the Avalanche, 678-584 in those 21 games, including a Wild shootout goal.