ST. PAUL, Minn. — So the Avalanche was down 2-0 after two periods, again was playing without Matt Duchene and Gabe Landeskog, and was going against Minnesota’s Devan Dubnyk, who at least statistically is the stingiest goalie in the NHL and seemingly was 20 minutes away from what would have been his fifth shutout of the season.
Other than that, the Avs had a lot going for them.
And yet Colorado pulled off the improbable comeback, getting third-period goals from Mikko Rantanen, Carl Soderberg and a resurgent Nathan MacKinnon to claim the 3-2 win over the Wild on Saturday night at the Xcel Energy Center. Making his fifth start of the season in the Colorado net, Calvin Pickard had 41 saves and helped keep the Avalanche in it.
“It was big,” MacKinnon said of the win that made Colorado 8-9-0 for the season. “We want to be more consistent. … Tonight, we had a ton of shots. Usually, we get 15 or fewer in this rink, so it feels good. I think we’re getting rewarded for our good play.”
Pickard now has won four of his five starts, including a 32-save shutout against the Wild in Denver on Nov. 5.
“It’s not a great position being down 2-0 after the second period, but up to that point I liked my game,” Pickard said. “I had to be technically sound around my net. We missed a lot of chances there in the second period, but you knew that at some point we were going to break through and in the third period, right away we got a couple of quick ones… We played great defense down the stretch, blocked shots and won draws and earned that victory.”
In that third period, the sellout crowd of 19,238 went from chanting “Duuuuuuub!” as Dubnyk and the Wild frustrated what appeared to be the punchless Avalanche through two periods, to muttering — or worse — about a Minnesota collapse. The Avalanche didn’t bombard Dubnyk, finishing with 34 shots, but got the three by him in the final 20 minutes.
“We’ve pushed hard in some of the games, especially the Dallas game, lately,” said Avalanche coach Jared Bednar. “But we came up short. Tonight, we kept pushing. It didn’t matter what the score was, we tried to stay with our game. … Pick made some big saves, our guys dug in and we were able to come back and get those goals in the third period and get a win. It’s showing the character that our guys have and we’re starting to move in the right direction.”
Duchene, who suffered a concussion Nov. 11, , but missed his fourth consecutive game, and Landeskog hasn’t joined the team on the trip after suffering a lower body injury against Los Angeles on Tuesday and has been out two games.
The Wild got goals from Charlie Coyle at 8:32 of the first period and Tyler Graovac at 6:34 of the second to take a 2-0 lead, and Dubnyk had 27 saves through two periods.
Then, as happened at Dallas on Thursday night when Colorado fell behind 3-0 before awakening in a 3-2 loss, the Avalanche got going.
First, Rantanen scored his second of the season for the Avalanche at 3:51 of the third. From Dubnyk’s left, the 20-year-old Finn one-timed a MacKinnon pass across the slot past the Wild goalie. Then the Wild’s Christian Folin went off for tripping at 5:26, and Soderberg had three whacks out of a scramble in front before getting it in the net, tying the game with the power-play goal at 6:48 of the third.
“I was trying to make a back door play there,” Soderberg said. “I almost got that, but I got my own rebound.”
Flying and weaving in traffic among three Wild skaters, MacKinnon then broke the tie at 9:20, beating Dubnyk from the slot.
“It was a good flat pass by (Francois Beauchemin),” MacKinnon said. “I saw some guy step up and I got some middle ice. Their D’s might have been on a change. I was kind of dancing in there and used one of their D as a screen, and I’m pretty excited about that.”
MacKinnon has had a goal and an assist in each of the first two games on the trip, after coming into it with only two goals in 15 games.
“That’s a handful of games now where he’s been really good,” Bednar said. “He wasn’t getting rewarded for some of his good play earlier in the season. But that’s two games in a row now where it’s starting to come for him and you call tell he’s seizing the moment.”
The Avalanche finishes off the three-game trip at Columbus on Monday night.
