Wild keep rolling, besting Colorado in a shootout

As far as Black Friday deals go ticket buyers to Friday s midday showdown between the NHL s two hottest teams certainly got their money s worth It may be too early to talk about playoff previews when fans of the Wild and Avalanche are still munching on cold turkey and leftover sweet potatoes but Minnesota s - shootout win over Colorado had all of the markings of a showdown between two teams with designs on meeting again in May Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy scored in the post-overtime shootout as Minnesota asserted its dramatic and thorough re-entry into the Central Division title race after a sluggish first month of the season Kirill Kaprizov had a pair of late second period goals as the Wild rallied from a mid-game deficit improving to - - in November Colorado has now gone games without a regulation loss Jesper Wallstedt s incident for NHL rookie of the year got just a tiny bit stronger as he made saves and improved to - - with the win He stopped Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar in the shootout Both teams had early power plays and both goalies were tested before the first media break In a tournament where mistakes were rare the Avalanche jumped on a miscue to take the early lead Tied up along the boards in the defensive zone Kaprizov s no-look pass missed two Wild teammates and went right to the stick of Colorado star Nathan MacKinnon who was alone at the top of the crease His quick shot resulted in an NHL-best th goal of the season But Kaprizov atoned for any perceived error just a bit past the midway point of the tournament His th career goal came with hulking Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns draped all over him but still unable to stop a Zeev Buium pass from deflecting off Kaprizov and past Wedgewood for the equalizer With the goal Kaprizov passed Zach Parise for third all-time on the Minnesota franchise scoring list It also snapped a streak of more than minutes Colorado had gone without allowing a goal But the Wild star was far from done and gave Minnesota the lead before the second period was done Ryan Hartman who had missed the previous four games with a lower body injury made an emphatic return when he circled the Colorado net then fed Kaprizov for a rising shot that beat a sprawling Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood Gabriel Landeskog scored his third goal of the season in the latter half of the third to tie the battle at - Wedgewood finished with saves for Colorado which suffered its only regulation loss of the season on Oct in Boston The Avalanche will be back in Minnesota in three weeks for a Dec rematch versus the Wild The Wild complete their holiday weekend back-to-back on Saturday evening with the Buffalo Sabres lone visit to St Paul this season Briefly Friday s contest was the th career championship for Wild forward Yakov Trenin who assisted on Kaprizov s second goal He entered the NHL in and has spent time with Nashville Colorado and the Wild since then Trenin entered Friday s event leading the NHL in hits with this season Related Articles Faceoffs the focus as Nico Sturm gets up to speed Wild escape Chicago with OT win after Blackhawks dominate early Marcus Johansson has become Minnesota s holiday bargain Yakov Trenin returning to form as NHL s top hitman Mats Zuccarello s impact hard to miss at Wild surge continues