The Avalanche douse the Wild

A defenseman's backhand leaves the Wild cold

Two hunters, one flame

Both clubs came to St. Paul as hunters. The Minnesota Wild had snuffed the Edmonton Oilers on qualification night. The Colorado Avalanche had ended the Chicago Blackhawks the same night. This was the Round of 16 and a real game, head to head at Xcel Energy Center, so one of them would leave without its fire. Last season Colorado finished 7th of 32 and Minnesota 11th. In the end the night turned on a defenseman, Kurtis MacDermid, and his backhand.

Thirty-four seconds apart

Ross Colton struck first, a wrist shot at 17:43 of the first, set up by Bowen Byram and Riley Tufte. In the second, with Jake Middleton off for interference, Valeri Nichushkin tipped in a power-play goal from Nathan MacKinnon and Devon Toews. Two up. It lasted 0:34. Kirill Kaprizov tipped one home off Marco Rossi's feed, and at 14:21, with Byram sitting for sending the puck over the glass, Joel Eriksson Ek tipped in the equalizer from Mats Zuccarello and Kaprizov.

The backhand that burned on

It stayed level for 10:35. Then at 4:56 of the third, MacDermid flipped a backhand past Filip Gustavsson, with Andrew Cogliano and Fredrik Olofsson assisting. Alexandar Georgiev did the rest, stopping 19 of the 21 shots he faced. Minnesota got a power play when Byram went off for hooking at 15:42 but could not score on it. The Wild's candle went dark, and the Avalanche burn on, one of ten flames still lit.