Colorado Avalanche Report Card: Playing the Wild

The Colorado Avalanche did an excellent job of defeating the Minnesota Wild last season — and even got into their heads.

The Colorado Avalanche played their main Central Division rival, the Minnesota Wild, four times this season. As usual, the scheduling was wonky, with Colorado playing the Wild once in November, once early in January, then twice in March.

Except for the first game of the series, which went to the shootout, the Avs handled the Wild pretty decisively. The scoring was very lopsided, with Colorado out-scoring Minnesota 21-7.

2017-18 Results:

Nov. 24, 2017, at Minnesota: Minnesota 3, Colorado 2 (SO)
Jan. 6, 2018, at Colorado: Colorado 7, Minnesota 2*
Mar. 2, 2018, at Colorado: Colorado 7, Minnesota 1
Mar. 13, 2018, at Minnesota: Colorado 5, Minnesota 1

*Milan Hejduk retirement ceremony

More from Mile High Sticking

Yeah, that was a fun series.

It didn’t start out so fun. In the first game of the series, the Colorado went down very early in the first just to have J.T. Compher and Blake Comeau answer with two first-period goals. That was great until everyone’s hated Wild spoiler, Nino Niederreiter, tied the game in the second.

The game went to the shootout, when one of our all-time least-favorite former Avs, Chris Stewart, got the game-winner. Charlie Coyle scored, too. Not fun.

It’s ok, Avs Nation, because the Avalanche got their revenge but good. They scored seven times each in the next two games at home and five times in Minnesota. Meanwhile, the Wild scored a total of four goal in those three games.

Remember after that fateful Game 7 overtime ping from Niederreiter Colorado had struggled with this most hated of teams? The Avs have gone 4-11 from that hated ping until the end of last season against Minnesota, getting shutout six times.

Well, this season the Avs were the decided victors. After the March 13 game, Minnesota players were complaining that the Avalanche were living rent-free in their heads. It. Was. Glorious.

Heroes for the Colorado Avalanche: Nathan MacKinnon (4 goals, 4 assists), Mikko Rantanen (1 goal, 5 assists), J.T. Compher (3 assists), Tyson Jost (2 goals, 1 assist)

Heroes for the Minnesota Wild: Eric Staal (2 goals, 1 assist), Mikko Koivu (2 goals, 1 assist)

Just like with the Chicago Blackhawks, there were no real heroes for the Minnesota Wild.

What I love about the heroes for the Colorado Avalanche is the fact that two of them were rookies — Compher and Jost. The new blood helped us defeat our old rivals. (And, as I observed in a previous post, Tyson Jost loves scoring against the Wild — and we love him for that.)

Let’s look at a couple of those rookie goals.

Here’s Compher’s goal in the first meeting of the two teams:

It’s notable for three reasons. One, it’s a classic Compher goal. Two, he scored it in Minnesota, which pissed the Wild fans off (as seen clearly as the camera pans out). Three, it was a shorty against that most hated of teams. Not, it didn’t win the Avs the game, but it was a great goal just the same.

Both times this season that Jost scored against the Wild, it was the final goal of a blowout game, which is just rude. Here’s the one during Milan Hejduk’s retirement ceremony night:

That was also the game that the goon goalie,

Devan Dubnyk

tried to grind

Alexander Kerfoot

‘s face into the ice.

Here’s Jost’s power play goal in the final game of the series, in Minnesota:

Some of these players have families, Tyson. Mikko Koivu alone has 12 children in the audience.

More Colorado Avalanche Team Grades:

Next: Jost Scores, Compher Close

Nathan MacKinnon also played extraordinarily well against the Wild. However, it’s just so satisfying to know that the youngsters, who weren’t even part of that infuriating rivalry, helped to put the nail in Minnesota’s coffin.

Colorado Avalanche vs Minnesota Wild Team Grade: A+