{"id":472843,"date":"2026-02-26T11:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/472843\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T11:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:05:10","slug":"avalanche-game-66-at-minnesota-wild-2nd-of-back-to-back-lines-notes-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/472843\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche Game 66 at Minnesota Wild: 2nd of Back-to-Back; Lines, Notes & How To Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Colorado Avalanche face off against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night at the Xcel Energy Center, the second game of a back-to-back. The puck drops at 6:08 p.m. MT.<\/p>\n

Nathan MacKinnon earned his 1,000th career point in a sloppy 3-0 win vs the Blackhawks and notched another from an assist on Martin Necas\u2019 goal. The victory was the Avs\u2019 sixth in a row \u2014 all at home.<\/p>\n

Read More: MacKinnon Makes NHL History with 1,000th Career Point<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe came out of the break slow and then went six in a row. So two on the road here. We\u2019re going to get in pretty late tonight, so we\u2019ll have to grind one out, and hopefully get another one in Calgary,\u201d MacKinnon said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Scott Wedgewood played one of his best games with the Avalanche stopping 20 shots to earn the shutout which increased head coach Jared Bednar\u2019s confidence in him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was fantastic. That\u2019s two really good games from Wedgewood now, right? I loved his first handful of games. He looked like a seasoned veteran starter \u2014 he was unbeatable \u2026 and that\u2019s what we need,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cWe got a goalie that can win every single night for us, or giving us a chance to win every single night, and it gives you a better opportunity to win on nights like this when you\u2019re not perfect with the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Read More: Good & Bad: Wedgewood Shines to Cap off Perfect Avalanche Homestand<\/a><\/p>\n

Wedgewood made highlight reel saves and the crowd at Ball Arena showed its support by chanting \u201cWedgie\u201d a few times during the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome, honestly. With the social media stuff and taken to just being an outgoing personality, engaging with them, I think it\u2019s hopefully that and play, obviously what they probably see more of,\u201d Wedgewood said. \u201cBut it\u2019s been fun to be embraced here. Blacky (Mackenzie Blackwood) and I since we\u2019ve come in, they\u2019ve been nothing but great and supportive behind us. And I haven\u2019t really had that since the last game here and then probably all the way back to World Juniors in 2012 since I\u2019ve heard a crowd like that. So, I appreciate it and it\u2019s fun to be here playing for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mackenzie Blackwood is the expected starter for the Avs and has played all three games against the Wild. They won two and lost one but he only allowed a total of six goals in the three matchups.<\/p>\n

Joel Kiviranta scored an empty-netter on Monday night and has three goals in the last three games.<\/p>\n

Artturi Lehkonen scored the first goal against the Hawks and had seven points in the six-game homestand. Ironically enough, the only game he was held scoreless was the 5-2 win over the Wild on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n

The Avs got a boost from trade deadline moves that brought Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle to the team. Morale and energy have been high and the impact of the new players has been reflected in the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cNelson, Coyle, and EJ (Erik Johnson) now joining the group, some of their strengths are on the penalty kill. We want to make sure we got all kinds of options. And it really helps to have those centermen, like Jack\u2019s (Drury) a really good draw guy on left and now we\u2019ve got Coyle on the right. And one of Coyle\u2019s strengths is the 4-on-3 and 5-on-3,\u201d Bednar said.<\/p>\n

The Avs have a game in hand from the Wild and sit ahead of them in the No. 3 spot of the Central Division with 80 points. Wild elite forward Kirill Kaprizov has missed 14 straight games with a lower-body injury and there is no timeline for his return. Matt Boldy leads the team with 54 points in 64 games, while second in line is Kaprizov with 52 in just 37 games.<\/p>\n

Miles Wood and Jimmy Vesey played against the Hawks but Bednar said he will cycle players in and out with the team\u2019s added depth. Expect Parker Kelly and Logan O\u2019Connor back in against the division rivals on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Read More: 10 Observations: 1,000 Career NHL Points \u2014 Not Once, But Twice (+)<\/a><\/p>\n

Season Series<\/p>\n

Jan. 9 at Minnesota Wild (W, 6-1)
\nJan. 20 vs Minnesota Wild (L, 3-1)
\nFeb. 28 vs Minnesota Wild (W, 5-2)
\nMarch 11 at Minnesota Wild<\/p>\n

Avalanche Injuries<\/p>\n

Gabriel Landeskog (knee, no timetable)<\/p>\n

Projected Avalanche Lines (subject to change)<\/p>\n

Artturi Lehkonen \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon \u2014 Martin Necas
Jonathan Drouin \u2014 Brock Nelson \u2014 Valeri Nichushkin
Joel Kiviranta \u2013 Charlie Coyle \u2014 Ross Colton
Parker Kelly \u2014 Jack Drury \u2014 Logan O\u2019Connor<\/p>\n

Devon Toews \u2014 Cale Makar
Ryan Lindgren \u2014 Josh Manson
Samuel Girard \u2014 Sam Malinski<\/p>\n

Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood<\/p>\n

Projected Starters (subject to change)<\/p>\n

Not confirmed: Mackenzie Blackwood (COL)
\nExpected: Filip Gustavsson (MIN)<\/p>\n

Upcoming Milestones<\/p>\n

Mackenzie Blackwood \u2014 needs 1 win for 100
\nLogan O\u2019Connor \u2014 needs 3 points for 100
\nMartin Necas \u2014 needs 4 assists for 200
\nBrock Nelson \u2014 needs 5 goals for 300, 10 assists for 300
\nJonathan Drouin \u2014 needs 4 games for 600<\/p>\n

How to Watch<\/p>\n

TV: Altitude TV
\nRadio: 92.5 FM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Colorado Avalanche face off against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night at the Xcel Energy Center, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5118],"tags":[2320,193,144,5,1117,513,161,38,5280,517,4,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-472843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-artturi-lehkonen","9":"tag-avalanche","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-jared-bednar","13":"tag-martin-necas","14":"tag-minnesota","15":"tag-minnesota-wild","16":"tag-minnesotawild","17":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116136609461801208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}