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 Frustrated by Colorado Avalanche goalie Seymon Varlamov for 65
minutes, Granlund heeded Edison's old lesson about not giving up and
"trying just one more time," then illuminated a red goal light for
his team. Granlund scored the only goal of the game 5:08 into
overtime as the Wild beat the Avalanche 1-0 in Game 3 of their
Western Conference first-round series.
After a pass from right winger Jason Pominville, Granlund cut across
the front of the Colorado net and slapped his own rebound past
Varlamov as the Wild, after losing the first two games of the series
in Colorado, pulled back within a game.
Granlund, who was hit repeatedly throughout the game, showed a
resilience with which Minnesota coach Mike Yeo is very familiar.
"He's used to being a target and he's used to being the center of
attention since he was a young kid," Yeo said. "He's on a different
stage now, but that's how he's grown up and that's what he's used
to. Guys like that often find the right time to make big plays."
Minnesota goalie Darcy Kuemper, making his first career playoff
start, had a 22-save shutout for the Wild, who dominated throughout
the game but could not get a shot past Varlamov until the extra
session.
Varlamov had 45 saves for the Avalanche.
"Credit to us and to Varly for sticking to what we had to do,"
Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson said. "For the most part, we let
Varly see everything and took care of second and third
opportunities. They were shooting from everywhere. So credit to
them, they played well. We're still playing with house money here in
the series, up 2-1, and we'll bring our game on Thursday."
Colorado had the only power play of the first period but nothing to
show for it in a scoreless 20 minutes dominated by Minnesota
everywhere except on the scoreboard.
The Wild launched 22 shots at Varlamov — a franchise record for a
playoff game and one shy of Minnesota's all-time record. One that
did not count as a shot on goal was perhaps Minnesota's best scoring
chance, when center Charlie Coyle hit the right post in the final
minute of the period.
The second period was scoreless as well, as the Avalanche managed
just seven shots on goal despite having a trio of power plays in the
period. Part of their trouble came from injuries.
Defenseman Tyson Barrie was lost for the game early in the second
period after a knee-on-knee hit with Minnesota left winger Matt
Cooke, who was given a minor penalty on the play. Colorado coach
Patrick Roy later said Barrie suffered a MCL injury and will be out
four to six weeks. Roy expects Cooke to be disciplined by the NHL.
"I think it's the play of the game. Knee on Tyson Barrie is without
a doubt the play of the game," Roy said. "We lost our best offensive
defenseman. I think it could have been a five-minute major, been out
of the game. Plus, I think it would've broke their momentum. There's
a key moment in those games. And now we believe that the league will
make the right call."
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Later in the period, Colorado lost defenseman Andre Benoit after he
was run hard into the boards by Wild right winger Nino Niederreiter.
Left winger Patrick Bordeleau left the ice after being slashed by
Niederreiter. Both Benoit and Bordeleau returned later in the
second.
The Wild outshot the Avalanche 13-5 in the third period and had the
only power play during that 20-minute span but again could not solve
the Colorado goalie. In the process, the Wild set a franchise record
for shots in a playoff game, breaking their previous high of 40.
"We lost and we need to move on," Varlamov told the Denver Post.
"Looking forward to playing the next game. It's not the regular
season anymore. It's all about winning. It's not about the
statistics or anything like that. You have to win."
The Wild, looking for their first playoff series win since 2003,
said the key was sticking to their game plan despite Varlamov's
effort.
"We saw it was working and we saw that we were getting a lot of
really good looks and really good chances," said Wild left winger
Zach Parise, who had a team-high seven shots on goal and assisted on
the winner. "We kept talking about not changing the way we played
even though it was still 0-0. What we were doing was effective
despite the score."
It was the 10th one-goal game between the Wild and Avalanche in
their last 12 postseason meetings.
NOTES: C Matt Duchene was still scratched from the Avalanche lineup
on Monday, but he skated during the team's morning practice, showing
some signs that he may return in the relatively near future.
Duchene, who led Colorado in scoring during the regular season with
70 points in 71 games, has not played since March 29 when he
suffered a knee injury in a game versus San Jose. ... The Wild
brought back a well-known name from their admittedly limited playoff
history to whip up the crowd on Monday. Eleven years ago, to the
day, F Richard Park scored in overtime as the Wild beat Colorado 3-2
in game six of their first-round playoff series. Minnesota would go
on to win game seven in Denver the next night. ... Monday's game was
the playoff debut for Wild rookie RW Justin Fontaine, who was a
healthy scratch in the first two games of the series. ... Game four
in this series will be played Thursday evening in St. Paul, starting
at 8:30 p.m. CT.
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