Avs ride 3-goal 2nd period to victory over Wild

Ross Colton had two goals and an assist, Jonathan Drouin and Jack Drury scored 52 seconds apart and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2 in Denver on Friday night.

Valeri Nichushkin also scored, Oliver Kylington contributed two assists and Mackenzie Blackwood turned away 19 shots for Colorado. The Avalanche improved to 2-0 on their six-game homestand and pulled even with the Wild for third place in the Central Division, though Minnesota has a game in hand.

NHL leading scorer Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his home point streak to 16 games.

Mats Zuccarello and Vinnie Hinostroza had goals and Filip Gustavsson made 25 saves for Minnesota, which has dropped three straight.

The Wild struck first when Marcus Johansson was able to dig the puck away from Sam Girard and Kylington along the boards and feed it to Zuccarello alone in front of the net, and he flipped it by Blackwood at 4:14 of the first period.

The Avalanche answered on the power play later in the period. MacKinnon had the puck in the left circle, fed it to Nichushkin in the slot, and he beat Gustavsson with a snap shot at 13:58.

Minnesota regained the lead late in the period on its first power-play chance when Hinostroza deflected Brock Faber's shot from the point at 17:42.

It stayed 2-1 until Colorado struck twice in less than a minute. Drouin tied it when he got a stretch pass from Kylington, went in alone on Gustavsson and roofed a shot at 8:57 of the second. Drury gave the Avalanche the lead when he picked up Cale Makar's rebound and knocked a backhander by Gustavsson at 9:49.

Colton capped the three-goal second period when he got a centering pass from Kylington and beat Gustavsson with a one-timer at 14:39. It was his first goal since Jan. 9 at Minnesota.

Gustavsson came off for an extra skater with less than two minutes left but Brock Faber took a holding minor and Colton scored into the empty net at 19:52.

--Field Level Media