Haula, Koivu lead Wild past Avalanche
SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild's Erik Haula had a goal and an assist and Mikko Koivu added a pair of assists to lead an attack in which 12 skaters notched at least one point as the Wild defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 on Sunday evening at Xcel Energy Center.
Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk returned from a two-game rest to make 30 saves for Minnesota.
Martin Hanzal, Jared Spurgeon, Zach Parise and Jordan Schroeder added goals for Minnesota (46-25-8), which reached 100 points for the third time in team history and boosted its lead over third-place St. Louis back to seven points.
Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen scored for Colorado (21-54-3), which lost for the eighth time in nine games.
Calvin Pickard started in goal for the Avalanche and made 12 saves before he was replaced early in the second period by Jeremy Smith, who finished with 11 saves.
Minnesota wasted little time jumping out to an early 2-0 first-period lead on goals by Hanzal and Spurgeon just 23 seconds apart.
Wild right winger Jason Pominville picked up career assist No. 400 on Hanzal's 19th of the season, a redirect of a Charlie Coyle pass, at 5:04.
On the next shift, Spurgeon's wrist shot hit Pickard, bounced straight up in the air and landed in the Colorado crease before trickling behind the Avalanche goaltender.
Colorado bounced back to cut the deficit in half at the 17:03 mark when Landeskog finished off a 2-on-1 with center J.T. Compher that was created when Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin fell in the neutral zone.
But Haula restored the two-goal cushion by scoring his 14th of the season with 20 seconds remaining in the period. Mikael Granlund set up Haula with a pretty behind-the-back pass for his 200th career point.
Eric Staal picked up his 34th assist of the season on Parise's power-play goal 3:35 into the second. Parise's 18th of the season came on a short-side shot along the goal line six seconds after Colorado defenseman Fedor Tyutin went off for interference.
The power-play goal chased Pickard, who was replaced by Jeremy Smith after stopping just 12 of Minnesota's first 16 shots.
The Wild made it 5-1 on right wing Jordan Schroeder's fifth of the season, an upper right corner shot from the left circle that eluded Smith's outstretched glove at the 16:16 mark.
But just 53 seconds later, after a Minnesota offensive-zone turnover, Avalanche right winger Sven Andrighetto's stretch pass found Mikko Rantanen behind the Wild defense for a breakaway and his team-leading 18th goal of the season.
Neither team managed to score in a third period, which saw the Avalanche outshoot the Wild 11-2.
NOTES: Sunday's game is the first of two games between the Central Division rivals in the season's final week. The Avalanche host the Wild at the Pepsi Center on Thursday. ... Minnesota LW Jason Zucker sat out his second straight game with a lower-body injury. ... Schroeder drew back into the Minnesota lineup after a three-game absence as the Wild scratched C Ryan White and D Nate Prosser. ... The Avalanche scratched C John Mitchell and C Joe Colborne. ... Wild C Eric Staal will be honored for breaking the 1,000 career game barrier when Minnesota concludes its home schedule on Tuesday against Staal's former team, the Carolina Hurricanes. ... Sunday's game was the final road game for the Avalanche, who host Chicago on Tuesday.