ST. PAUL, Minn. _ Before Sunday's game against Colorado, Wild coach Bruce Boudreau was in no mood to sugarcoat his feelings. Still smarting from a loss at Nashville on Saturday _ one he said left him with "a lot to be disappointed in" _ he spoke bluntly about the Wild's need to get moving in the right direction as the playoffs approach.
"We've got to go out there and win a game," Boudreau said. "If we're not ready to play, then we're in trouble."
This time, the Wild didn't leave him wanting. They beat the Avalanche, 5-2, at Xcel Energy Center, getting goals from five different players and 30 saves from goaltender Devan Dubnyk.
The Wild rode a crisp transition game to a 3-1 first-period lead on goals from Martin Hanzal, Jared Spurgeon and Erik Haula, who ended a 17-game goal drought. Zach Parise and Jordan Schroeder added a pair of goals in the second period, with Parise scoring on a power play. Dubnyk, who sat out the past two games to rest, surrendered the Avs' only two goals on a two-on-one and a breakaway.
The victory was Dubnyk's 38th of the season, a franchise record.
Boudreau warned the Wild are in no position to take any opponent lightly, including the woebegone Avs. The lowest-scoring team in the NHL by a whopping 21 goals _ and the league's last-place team by 20 points _ Colorado surprised St. Louis on Friday, beating the Blues, 2-1.
The Avalanche, though, didn't present much of a threat in the first period. The Wild held them to five shots on goal, including only two in the first 14 { minutes, en route to a 3-1 lead.
Much of the period was played in the Avs' zone, with an assertive, confident Wild offense repeatedly setting up good scoring chances. Hanzal was the first to strike, scoring the third goal of his 17-game tenure with the Wild on a play that made him look up at the scoreboard and smile. Charlie Coyle, in the right circle, spotted Hanzal gliding down the slot and hit him with a pass that Hanzal tucked past goalie Calvin Pickard.
It took only 23 seconds for the Wild to double their lead. After a faceoff in the right circle of the Colorado zone, Spurgeon launched a shot from the point that hit Pickard and soared into the air. The puck fell and appeared to go into the goal off Haula's skate as he crashed the net, but the goal was awarded to Spurgeon when it was ruled that the puck did not touch Haula.
Dubnyk wasn't tested much in the period. He made his best save when he snared a snap shot by Mikko Rantanen, but one minute later, a Wild error gave the Avalanche an even better opportunity that they turned into a goal.
When Jonas Brodin fell, it allowed the Avs' J.T. Compher and Gabriel Landeskog a two-on-one. Compher carried the puck into the Wild zone, drew defenseman Christian Folin to the right and fired a pass to Landeskog for a goal from the left circle.
That pulled Colorado within 2-1, but the Wild responded quickly. Only 2:37 after Landeskog's goal, Haula got his first since Feb. 28 on a beautiful setup by Mikael Granlund. Granlund, at the right of the goal crease, took a pass from Koivu _ and with his back to the net, he backhanded the puck to Haula in the slot for a goal and a 3-1 lead with only 20 seconds to go until the first intermission.
The margin grew to 4-1 at 3:35 of the second period, on the Wild's first power play of the game. After Haula drew an interference penalty on Fedor Tyutin, Eric Staal got the puck below the goal line. He passed to Parise, standing on the goal line to the right of the net, and Parise squeezed the puck between Pickard and the right goal post for a 4-1 lead.
That was it for Pickard, who was replaced by Jeremy Smith after stopping 12 of 16 shots. The Avalanche picked up its pace after that goal, rolling to a 10-2 advantage in second-period shots.
The Wild got their fifth goal at 16:16 when Ryan Suter sent a cross-ice pass to Schroeder, whose wrist shot from the left circle beat Smith on the glove side. Rantanen made it 5-2 when he scored on a breakaway at 17:09.
