St. Paul, Minn. – Jacques Lemaire was befuddled.
“We never give breakaways,” the Minnesota Wild coach said Thursday night. “And now we give two in a row.”
The two in question came late in the first period at the Xcel Energy Center, when Colorado’s Marek Svatos and Alex Tanguay scored on breakaways only 30 seconds apart and got the Avalanche rolling in a 4-2 victory over the Wild.
The funny thing was, Minnesota had the game’s first eight shots on goal and the Avalanche was outplayed for most of the period. But an out-of-the-doghouse David Aebischer kept Colorado in it with more strong work, most notably when he made an uncanny and even uncharacteristic sliding pad save to rob the Wild’s Marian Gaborik on one of Minnesota’s two power plays in the period.
“I never make (those),” said Aebischer, who finished with 33 saves. “That time, it was the only way to save it. I think that was the key save.”
Aebischer added: “It’s getting better and better. We’re again pleased with the way we played, especially in the third period. I think we controlled the game pretty much. I’m pleased with the way I’m playing right now, too.”
Avalanche coach Joel Quenne- ville, who previously was in no danger of being granted an honorary membership in the Switzerland-based David Aebischer fan club, again complimented his 27-year-old goalie.
“That first 10, 15 minutes was all David,” Quenneville said. “Then we finally got out of our own end. I thought he was square and strong tonight, and he was a big factor in us winning again. It’s nice to see him come back with another strong game.”
After the Avalanche took the two-goal lead, Tanguay scored again early in the second period and Brett McLean got the final Colorado goal – on yet another breakaway after coming out of the penalty box – as the Avalanche won its third straight game. Lemaire yanked goalie Dwayne Roloson after he allowed the four goals on 14 shots in the first two periods, and Manny Fernandez was in the net when Minnesota got within 4-2 on Todd White’s goal at 9:38 of the third.
But the Wild couldn’t get any closer.
“They were outplaying us a little bit early,” Tanguay said, “but we did a pretty good job keeping them on the outside. They were in our zone, but they didn’t have that many great scoring chances, and when they did, Abby made the good saves. From there, we got a couple of breaks late in the period and just went on.”
While Colorado remained in the eighth spot in the Western Conference and fourth in the Northwest Division, the Avalanche got within five points of the first-place Calgary Flames in the division in which all five teams – including the last-place Wild – have winning records.
At the outset of the new year, it seemed obvious that for Colorado to have any chance of challenging for its ninth division title in the franchise’s 10 seasons in Denver, the Avs were going to have to make a move up in January – a month in which they have only three road games.
And so far, the signs are promising.
“It’s a good time for us to make up some ground and play well,” said Tanguay, who has four goals in the past four games. “The last three, we’ve been playing a lot better.”
“We looked at this like this was a very critical game,” Quenneville said. “We wanted to sustain what we achieved in the last couple (of games). We have a little momentum going on our side now, and we have a stretch where we can hopefully keep building something.”
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
