Wild hold on to beat Avalanche
DENVER -- Nino Niederreiter scored a go-ahead goal early in the third period and added an assist, Nate Prosser also had a goal and an assist, and the Minnesota Wild held on to beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Thursday night.
Jason Zucker scored 10 seconds in after missing three games with an injury, and Mikael Granlund added a goal for Minnesota. Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves to reach 40 wins in a season for the first time in his career.
Minnesota (48-25-8) tied the team record for wins set in 2006-07, and its 104 points also matches the franchise mark set that season.
After Niederreiter and Granlund made it 4-2 early in the third, Matt Nieto scored at 14:20 to get Colorado within a goal. Minnesota defenseman Christian Folin went off for crosschecking and Avalanche goaltender Calvin Pickard came off for an extra skater.
Sven Andrighetto appeared to tie it on the 6-on-4 with 1:14 left after a lengthy review but the Wild challenged the goal and it was disallowed on goaltender interference.
Tyler Jost scored his first NHL goal and Francois Beauchemin had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (22-55-3), who closed out their home schedule with a loss. Pickard finished with 24 saves.
Zucker tied his own franchise record for quickest goal to start a game with his 22nd of the season. He also holds the team record for quickest goal to start a period -- eight seconds.
Prosser made it 2-0 at 14:09 when he scored right after the Avalanche had killed off minor penalty.
Jost cut the lead in half when he roofed a shot on a rush at 5:44 of the second period, and Beauchemin tied it with a shot at 14:55 of the second. It was his third of the season.
The game was played with one linesman after Ryan Galloway was hit in the face with a puck on Martin Hanzal's dump-in at 3:15 of the first period. Avalanche trainer Matt Sokolowski tended to Galloway, who was bleeding and was helped off the ice.
NOTES: Minnesota D Jared Spurgeon was scratched with a lower-body injury sustainred in Tuesday's win against Carolina. He is on the trip and could play in Arizona on Saturday. ... Colorado RW Mikko Rantanen missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. He could return for the last two games of the season. He is tied with Matt Duchene for the team lead in goals with 18.