Wild 1, Avalanche 0
Devin Setoguchi scored with 2:31 to play and Niklas Backstrom registered his 24th career shutout as the Minnesota Wild won their third straight game by nipping the visiting Colorado Avalanche 1-0 on Thursday.
Setoguchi wristed a 30-footer past Jean-Sebastien Giguere for the unassisted game-winner, his second goal in as many contests.
Backstrom turned aside 27 shots to notch his second shutout of the season and improve to 18-4-2 lifetime against Colorado.
In winning his third straight start, Backstrom sent the reeling Avalanche to their seventh loss in eight games (1-6-1) in November.
Giguere needed to make only 17 saves as Colorado dropped a fourth straight matchup with the Wild and lost for the ninth time in its last 11 games at Minnnesota.
The Avalanche welcomed back right wing Brandon Yip, who played his first game since suffering a broken forearm during training camp. The Wild were without defenseman Marek Zidlicky, who is the team's third player to suffer a concussion in the past week.