Nearly six minutes after a spirited tussle with Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk on Saturday afternoon, Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog broke the team’s seven-period scoring drought by scoring a power-play goal at Dubnyk’s doorstep. Ten minutes after that, Colorado held on to win 1-0 at the Pepsi Center behind Calvin Pickard’s tremendous goaltending.
Dubnyk committed two of the Wild’s three penalties in the third period and the Avs finally broke through when Christoph Bertschy was serving a holding minor. Before Bertschy stepped into the penalty box, Minnesota was an NHL-best 29-of-30 in penalty killing.
, who was making his third start in Colorado’s 10th game, looked like a clear-cut No. 1 in making 32 saves. Minnesota had a goal disallowed in the final minute because Eric Staal drove Avs defenseman Erik Johnson into Pickard, who had no chance to make the save on Charlie Coyle.
First-year Colorado coach Jared Bednar said struggling goalie Semyon Varlamov, who has gone 0-3 and allowed 15 goals in his last three starts, will start Sunday at St. Louis — primarily because it’s a back-to-back situation. Pickard is 3-0.
“Because of the history of the situation, Varly is getting a good opportunity here early,” Bednar said. “But we’re not setting the schedule month by month or season-long. We’re looking at it week to week. … We’ll get to a point where we need results, so guys that are playing (well will play) and maybe we’ll ride a hot goalie for a little bit and see how it goes.”
Colorado was coming off a 4-0 loss to Chicago on Thursday and hadn’t scored since the first period of a 5-1 loss to visiting Nashville on Tuesday. The Avs had lost four of five games since beginning 3-1. Pickard realizes he has an army of supporters, but won’t lose sight of the role he has been asked to play.
“My season is off to a good start, but Varly is the (No. 1) goalie here,” Pickard said. “We haven’t had the goal support for him, but he’s looked really good. I’m just going to continue to take advantage of my opportunities when I get them.”
made the game-winning pass to Landeskog and 19-year-old rookie Mikko Rantanen delivered it to Duchene for his first career point. Rantanen played left wing on the “Lottery Line” with Duchene in the middle and Nathan MacKinnon on the right side. Duchene, Rantanen and MacKinnon were top-10 lottery picks in their draft years.
“Last three games we’ve got two goals,” Duchene said. “That’s a bit frustrating, but two out of those three games we played very well. We just want to keep plugging away and that offense will come. We have too much talent for it not to.”
Duchene said of Pickard: “He was outstanding. He made all the saves he needed to make plus a couple that maybe he could have let in, in terms of the quality of the chance. He was great.”
A big neutral-zone check by the Avs’ and the Landeskog-Dubnyk altercation highlighted the early portion of an interesting third period. Mitchell, who was placed on waivers and cleared Saturday, three hours before game time, put a big shoulder into the Wild’s Jason Zucker during a stretch the Avs dominated.
“I really liked our third period. I think they got their second shot deep into the third period, which is great for us,” Bednar said. “We were playing energized. I think the physicality — I think we need to bring a little bit more of that to the identity of our group.”
Colorado came out slowly and the Wild dominated possession throughout most of the first period. But the Avs were better in the second period and had a glorious chance to produce the first goal after Minnesota’s Ryan Suter and Matt Dumba committed slashing and cross-checking minors on Colorado’s 37 seconds into the frame.
During Minnesota’s power play, Comeau broke loose for a short-handed breakaway and was hacked from behind by Suter. After failing to get off a shot, Comeau was cross-checked into the corner by Dumba. But the coinciding penalties did not lead to an Avalanche goal on its 4-on-3 power play for 17 seconds and 5-on-3 advantage for 1:43.
