A tight game was expected. A game featuring 15 goals between two of the top defensive teams?
“If you scripted that one," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said, “I don’t know how you do. I can't explain it."
Cale Makar scored twice in the third period after returning from an earlier injury and the Avalanche overcame blowing a three-goal lead to beat the Minnesota Wild 9-6 on Sunday night in a wacky Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.
Makar, who left in the first period with an undisclosed ailment, scored his second goal of the game with 2:54 remaining to make it 8-6. Nathan MacKinnon added an empty-net goal with 2:08 remaining to seal it.
This was the 10th playoff game ever with at least 15 combined goals and just the second since 1994. There were five goals in each period.
“Just a weird game,” Makar said. “I don’t think we’re going to see that again. It’s probably a one-off, but glad we were able to stick with it and find a way to win.”
Who figured this? A high-scoring affair between two of the stingiest teams in the league with two elite goaltenders. There were 14 different players who notched a goal in a game that turned into a track meet. It's tied for the second-most in a playoff game.
“It’s nice to be able to win games like this,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “Not necessarily a coach’s dream or a player’s dream — we don’t want to give up six goals. It’s good to win this one but we’ve got lots of things to clean up.”
The Avalanche improved to 72-1 since moving to Colorado in 1995-96 when leading a playoff game by three or more goals. The lone loss was Game 5 against St. Louis in a season they went on to win the Stanley Cup.
A well-rested Colorado team led 3-0 just 6:47 into the game. But the Wild steadily climbed back and took a 5-4 lead on a short-handed goal from Marcus Foligno late in the second.
Devon Toews tied at 5-apiece in the second period. It was just the fourth Game 1 in playoff history with both teams scoring five or more goals through two periods.
“Listen, the game was helter-skelter,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “We lost the game. There are certain areas we've got to clean up and be ready to clean up. If you lose a game, you’ve got to take the lessons out of it, move on.”
Both goalies struggled, but made some timely saves, too. Scott Wedgewood, who had the league's best goals-against average this season, allowed one more goal than he did in the entire sweep of the Los Angeles Kings in Round 1.
He made 30 saves while Jesper Wallstedt stopped 34 shots.
“He’s great. He’s going to bounce back,” Marcus Foligno said of Wallstedt. “He’ll be fine next game. He’s a beast. This wasn’t on him. I mean, there’s a lot of things, (but) we got to play a little bit faster for him.”
Game 2 is Tuesday night in Denver.
The Wild were without forward Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jonas Brodin. They've been ruled out of Tuesday's game as well.
Makar took a scary hit along the boards from Foligno early in the first period. The Avalanche defenseman's right leg flew into the air before falling to the ice. Makar tested out his skating with some twirls at the end of the first and returned for the second. He had an assist on Nick Blankenburg's goal.
“I was just trying to get back and feel good,” Makar said. "It’s not fun when you kind of tweak something, but it happens. Got to be ready for it. Had to check a couple things out, make sure it was good to go.”
