St. Paul, Minn. – In a word, the Avalanche got pinched Sunday night.
When the Avs’ John-Michael Liles failed to get the puck by jumping inside the Minnesota Wild blue line, he got caught pinching, leading to a 2-on- 1 break the other way.
When Minnesota’s Marian Gaborik was finished with the puck, it was in the net behind David Aebischer – and in front of a trailing Liles – and the Wild went on to a 5-3 victory at Xcel Energy Center.
Gaborik’s short-handed goal at the 5:36 mark of the third period broke a 3-3 tie and dropped the Avs to 0-2 on their four- game road trip.
Liles had just tied the game with his 12th goal of the season when the Avs went on a four-minute power play from Cody McCormick getting cut on a high stick by Minnesota’s Kurtis Foster. The Avs had the puck in the Wild’s zone when it came loose, rolling out toward Liles at the blue line. But Wild veteran Wes Walz beat him to it, and broke out with Gaborik, who put a beauty of a wrister to the top shelf from the left circle.
“Bad pinch,” a frustrated Liles said. “We just couldn’t quite get it done tonight.”
The Avs just didn’t do enough good things to deserve a win. They didn’t win enough faceoffs (43 percent), didn’t do enough on the power play (1-for-6) and were caught too many times outnumbered by the Wild up the ice. Still, to get nothing after being even in the third period with a big power-play chance had players hanging their heads a bit.
“We gave up one short-handed, and that’s something you don’t want to do at any time of the season, but especially right now,” said winger Ian Laperriere, who scored to give Colorado a 2-1 lead in the first period. “We just have to learn from it and come back stronger in St. Louis.”
It was fitting Gaborik and Walz combined on the winning goal; Walz scored Minnesota’s first two goals, one set up by Gaborik. His goal couldn’t have been placed any better, just over Aebischer’s left shoulder.
“I was looking to pass to Walz, but I thought I had a little room so I decided to shoot,” Gaborik said.
The Avs pressed for the tying score and came close a couple of times, the best chance being a walk-in bid by Laperriere.
Penalties to Alex Tanguay hurt the Avs in the final 12 minutes. Tanguay was sent off for hooking with 11:40 left, then with 3:44 left he was assessed four minutes for drawing blood with a high stick. That kept the Avs from getting an extra skater by pulling the goalie.
Tanguay said he didn’t see any blood, and wondered why he got four minutes.
“I thought I only got his tooth a little bit, but no blood,” he said.
The Wild is fighting for its playoff life.
“They played desperate, they played the way they play best,” said Aebischer (26 saves).
“We know in this room we can play better. I know it’s tough to play two games in two nights, but maybe we needed to compete a little bit better. You just have to bounce back and play better the next game.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
