The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t happen, and special teams were again an issue.<\/p>\n
Minnesota\u2019s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,\u201d Avs coach Jared Bednar said. \u201cWe had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.<\/p>\n
The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cWe give up the (second power-play goal) and that\u2019s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) \u2026 we score and it\u2019s a tie game. We haven\u2019t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to see that turn around a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.<\/p>\n
That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns\u2019 backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.<\/p>\n
Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns\u2019 two minutes didn\u2019t start until Landeskog\u2019s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood\u2019s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.<\/p>\n
Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,\u201d Landeskog said. \u201cObviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that\u2019s a penalty. There\u2019s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yeah, undisciplined and we\u2019ve got to be better there for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin\u2019s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.<\/p>\n
Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy\u2019s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.<\/p>\n
Martin Necas continued his hot run with a goal to even the score at 13:30 of the middle frame. Nathan MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and carried it into the offensive end. He left a drop pass for Necas near the right point and then played fullback, driving Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt back to give Necas space and then providing a screen on a lethal wrist shot from his Czech linemate.<\/p>\n
That was Necas\u2019 24th goal of the season. He added a second goal in the final minute after the Wild had built a three-goal advantage to give him 25 on the season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also three in two games since the Olympic break. Necas had three goals and eight points in five games for Czechia at the Olympics in Milan, equaling his country\u2019s record for points at the event.<\/p>\n
MacKinnon missed Colorado\u2019s first game back on Wednesday because of maintenance. He actually slipped to third in the NHL scoring race as of Thursday morning, in part because Tampa Bay\u2019s Nikita Kucherov has now has 53 points in his past 23 games to track down MacKinnon and Edmonton\u2019s Connor McDavid to make it a three-man race for the Art Ross Trophy.<\/p>\n
McDavid (five times) and Kucherov (three) have combined to win the Art Ross in eight of the past nine years. MacKinnon has never won it, but has finished second each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
Minnesota scored a second goal off a Colorado player to make it a 3-1 game and then added two empty-net tallies around Necas\u2019 second goal to seal the Wild\u2019s sixth win in a row.<\/p>\n