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 Minnesota left winger Zach Parise scored a goal and set up two
more as his team made an emphatic season debut, blasting past the
Colorado Avalanche 5-0 on Thursday.
Right wingers Jason Pominville and Nino Neiderreiter, and defensemen
Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Suter added goals for the Wild, who got a
16-save shutout from goaltender Darcy Kuemper.
"This was a combination of we were good tonight, there's no
question, and let's not kid ourselves. Colorado was not at their
best. I think we helped in that," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "We had
a good start. It might have taken them off their game a little bit.
So, to sit here and expect us to go and play 82 games like that,
it's not going to happen."
It was a quiet start for Colorado, which won the Central Division
title last season but was upset by the Wild in a seven-game playoff
series in the opening round. Avalanche goalie Seymon Varlamov
stopped 33 of the 38 shots he faced in the opening two periods,
giving way to Reto Berra, who made 10 saves on 10 shots in the final
20 minutes.
"It was a night where we just weren't nearly good enough," Avalanche
right winger Jarome Iginla said. "They played well and we didn't.
It's the beginning of the year. We've got to get our battle level up
and compete. That's what we'll take from it."
Minnesota dominated the Avalanche from the start, forcing Varlamov
to make six saves in the first 62 seconds while holding Colorado
without a shot on goal during a pair of first period power plays.
Outshooting Colorado 15-2 with 5:06 left in the first, Minnesota
finally broke through. Suter fed center Mikael Granlund with a long
lead pass, and the Finn's wrist shot was stopped by Varlamov. But
the sizable rebound went to the front of the net. Pominville needed
only a tap-in into the mostly-empty net for the Wild's first goal of
the season.
"It was fun. Those games are fun, getting chances a lot," said
Parise. "When our line is playing well that's the way we want to
play, support each other two-on-one when we get a chance. I thought
tonight we did a good job of bringing it to the net. So it was a
good start for us."
Spurgeon doubled Minnesota's lead early in the second, putting a
shot between Varlamov's skates after a feed from Parise. After a
scrap behind the Avalanche net left the teams skating 4-on-4, Parise
broke hard to the net and snapped his own rebound past Varlamov for
a 3-0 lead. Neiderreiter and Suter added goals before the second was
done, prompting Avalanche coach Patrick Roy to give his goalie a
third period of rest.
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"I have a lot more to worry (about) than our goaltenders right now,"
Roy said. "The way we're playing, offensively. We were hiding behind
it in the preseason. Now we cannot hide it any more. We're going to
have to compete. We're going to have to go to the net. We're going
to have to change our little game. Right now we're too fancy. We're
going to have to put more pucks to the net, have to compete in the
corners."
Colorado, which lost star forward Paul Stastny to free agency in the
offseason, added veteran Iginla to what was considered an
already-potent lineup.
"What a game by the guys in front of me. Outstanding work by them,"
said Kuemper, who recorded his third career shutout.
At 24, Kuemper is the youngest goalie to start a season opener for
Minnesota.
"I didn't have to do much tonight," he said.
The Wild improved to 12-0-2 all-time in home openers and set a
franchise record with 48 shots on goal for the game.
NOTES: The only member of Colorado's 23-man roster not to make the
trek to St. Paul for the opener was C Jesse Winchester, who is
recovering from a concussion. ... Minnesota had LW Matt Cooke on the
second line at least temporarily, while RW Justin Fontaine recovers
from an upper-body injury he sustained in the preseason. Fontaine is
skating in practice and is expected to make his season debut soon.
... The Wild's 2014-15 media guide features a first-page dedication
to Bob Suter, the late father of Minnesota D Ryan Suter. Bob Suter,
a member of the 1980 Miracle on Ice Olympic team, died of a heart
attack in early September. He was 57. ... In a flashback to their
first-round playoff series from last spring, the Wild and Avalanche
get a rematch 48 hours later, facing each other in Denver on
Saturday night.
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