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Colorado Avalanche: Wild Play Goon Game, Lose Anyway

By Nadia Archuleta

SAINT PAUL, MN - FEBRUARY 9: Luke Kunin #19 and Devan Dubnyk #40 of the Minnesota Wild knock the puck away from Matt Calvert #11 of the Colorado Avalanche during the game at the Xcel Energy Center on February 9, 2020 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
SAINT PAUL, MN - FEBRUARY 9: Luke Kunin #19 and Devan Dubnyk #40 of the Minnesota Wild knock the puck away from Matt Calvert #11 of the Colorado Avalanche during the game at the Xcel Energy Center on February 9, 2020 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Colorado Avalanche topped the Minnesota Wild in a 3-2 victory that improves Colorado’s standings. However, it cost them a player.

The Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild for the final game of their five-game road trip. With that win, they’re now 4-6-1 at Xcel Energy Center and 2-2 against the Wild this season.

The two teams will meet up one last time, on March 23 in Minnesota.

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Tonight’s game was a hard-fought one, and one that took its toll. As the Wild saw they were losing, they started to play a goon game.

Luke Kunin and Jordan Greenway were the biggest menaces on the ice for Minnesota. As a tag-team, they went after Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar, Gabriel Landeskog, and Nazem Kadri.

The last they actually managed to take out. Kunin did the dirty.  (Watch here.) He’s also the one who tried to work over Cale Makar and had to answer to team dad, Matt Calvert, for it. (I’ll add the video when it shows up on Hockey Fights.)

Kadri tried to return to the game. He played a shift after coming back from the locker room, but he headed down the tunnel again. We can only hope it’s not a serious injury and he can play again soon.

In the end, Colorado beat Minnesota where it counted — in the score. They topped the Wild 3-2.

That win puts them to within three points of the top of the Central Division. What’s more, they have the exact same number of wins as the current top, the St. Louis Blues, and they have more regulation wins. They also have two games in hand.

By the way, that win makes the Avs 4-1-0 on the roadie. They play their next five games at home. Granted, three of those games are against very good teams — Washington, Tampa Bay, and New York Islanders. However, home ice advantage is where it’s at.

I have to say, I both love and hate these games against the Wild. I’ve been around since the beginning, so I well remember the great rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings. However, the current rivalry with the Wild is more of a hot rage.

I genuinely hate everything about that team.

Oh! I even hate their media! The Colorado Avalanche beat the (hated) Minnesota Wild, and yet two of the three stars of the game are Wild players:

  1. Gabriel Landeskog
  2. Kevin Fiala
  3. Jared Spurgeon

Really? We saw a short-handed goal from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare! We also saw a 34-save performance from Pavel Francouz.

Talk about home ice advantage!

Next. National Girls and Women in Sports Day. dark

Anyway, the Colorado Avalanche are on their way home to prepare for their home stand. They’ve been pretty good at home — 14-7-4. Let’s hope for some more of that home cooking.

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