Avalanche 3, Wild 2
Captain Gabriel Landeskog and defenseman Zach Redmond each recorded a goal and an assist as visiting Colorado held on for its third straight victory.
Cody McLeod also tallied for the Avalanche, who were outscored 12-1 in losing the first four contests of the five-game season series. Jarome Iginla notched a pair of assists and Semyon Varlamov made 29 saves before Reto Berra came on late in the third period to stop three shots.
Chris Stewart and Thomas Vanek scored in the final 5:56 for the Wild, who had their five-game winning streak snapped and remained one point ahead of idle Winnipeg for the first wild card in the Western Conference. Defenseman Jonas Brodin recorded two assists and Devan Dubnyk turned aside 18 shots in his franchise-record 24th consecutive start.
Colorado matched its goal total from its previous four meetings with Minnesota late in the first period, as McLeod tipped Iginla's shot from the outer edge of the left faceoff circle past Dubnyk with 1:55 remaining to open the scoring. Redmond doubled the lead at nearly the same juncture of the middle session, beating the goaltender to the stick side with 1:51 left with a blast from above the slot that bounced on its way to the net.
Landeskog made it 3-0 during a power play just 79 seconds into the third, when he knocked in a loose puck in the crease after a scramble in front. Stewart got Minnesota on the board with less than six minutes remaining and Vanek beat Berra with 19 seconds left, but the Wild were unable to get the equalizer.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Varlamov exited the contest shortly after allowing Stewart's goal with a lower-body ailment that may have been cramps, according to Colorado coach Patrick Roy. ... Dubnyk allowed more than two goals for the first time in 10 starts and fell to 18-4-1 since being acquired from Arizona. ... Minnesota D Jared Spurgeon was activated from injured reserve and in the lineup after missing eight games with an upper-body injury, registering a minus-1 rating in 17:34 of ice time.