ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Avalanche doesn’t score much against most teams, but against the Minnesota Wild, the guys in Burgundy and Blue don’t score at all.
On Saturday night in front of the biggest crowd of the season at the Xcel Energy Center (19,244), the Avs suffered their third consecutive shutout loss against the Wild, losing 1-0 to fall a point behind Minnesota in a tight wild-card playoff race they wouldn’t be in if it weren’t for goalie Semyon Varlamov, who was again sensational.
Colorado, coming off a 3-0 loss to visiting Detroit on Thursday, opened the season with 5-0 and 3-0 setbacks to Minnesota, another disappointing team coming off last year’s playoff run. In all, the Avs have been blanked eight times this season, after failing to score just once in 82 games of 2013-14, and that came in the 71st game.
The Avs play their 54th game of the season Sunday at Winnipeg.
“I wish I knew, we all wish we knew, why none are going in,” Avs center Matt Duchene said. “You keep thinking it’s going to come, but it just won’t. The only thing you can do is try to stay positive and hope it comes, that ‘A’ game. It’s the only way we can think right now.”
The Avs registered four shots — just two by a forward — in the first period against the Wild, and although they played much better in the second and third and nearly scored on a late power play, it was another solemn postgame dressing room for a team that plays another key Central Division game with little rest at Winnipeg.
“I liked that we regrouped after the first period. We got dominated in the first, but I thought in the second and third I thought we responded better,” Avs coach Patrick Roy said. “Obviously it’s two 1-0 losses (Detroit had two empty-net goals) for us, and they were both hard-fought games.”
The Avs finished with just 18 shots, including only 10 by forwards.
“After that first period, we got going. We were inching closer and closer, and we had a couple (pucks) on the goal line, but they wouldn’t go in,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “Last year, everything was going in for us. This year it’s certainly not the same. It’s just the way it is.”
The Wild struck 11:21 into the game, with forward Charlie Coyle redirecting a big blast from the point by defenseman Marco Scandella. Varlamov stopped the other 16 shots he faced in the first period, but Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk was as strong in the second and third.
The Avs were 0-of-2 on the power play and are now scoreless with the man advantage in their last 25 opportunities. A puck was trickling behind Dubnyk late in Colorado’s second power play, but defenseman Jonas Brodin slapped it away near the goal line.
“It’s the kind of year we’re having offensively,”Roy said. “I think right now we’re squeezing the stick a bit around the net. There’s a rebound there that we had put our hands on. More important, I think it’s a lack of confidence right now. We don’t shoot the puck with confidence.”
Winnipeg is rested and waiting for Colorado. The Jets had Saturday off.
“It makes it a tougher trip when you lose the first game, obviously,” Roy said. “But at the same time, we’ve got to group and find ways to get something going tomorrow.”
Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or
COLORADO AT WINNIPEG
4 p.m. Sunday, ALT; 950 AM
Spotlight on Dustin Byfuglien: The 260-pound Jets defenseman has been playing forward lately after reportedly throwing the inappropriately dressed Evander Kane’s track suit into the showers last week in Vancouver. Byfuglien has enough of the trouble-prone Kane, a dynamic young forward who was a healthy scratch against the Canucks and is now on injured reserve, and “Big Buff” is trying to make up for his absence by playing up front.
