ST. PAUL, Minn. — There will be no sweep of the season series for the Minnesota Wild against the Avalanche — not after the Avs’ outstanding performance in a 4-3 victory over Minnesota on Monday night.
The Wild had four victories over the Avs in as many meetings coming in, but Colorado played an opportunistic game and finally solved goalie Niklas Backstrom.
Backstrom fell to 14-3-2 against the Avs, who got goals from four players and hung on by holding off a solid Wild rally.
Chris Stewart had the goal of the night, a huge slap shot blast past Backstrom that gave Colorado a 2-0 lead early in the second period. Milan Hejduk, Matt Duchene and Matt Hendricks also scored, the last goal giving the Avs a 4-1 lead.
The Avs got a little sloppy late but otherwise were the much better team in the first 50 minutes. Craig Anderson had to make some tough saves in the final few minutes to preserve the victory.
Anderson faced a flurry of shots, including a bad bounce off the board that almost caught him out of position, but finished strong with 28 saves.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
