- Cale Makar scored twice in the third after returning from a Marcus Foligno hit
- The Avalanche held off the Wild 9-6 in just the 10th playoff game ever with 15-plus goals
- Read below for the full breakdown of one of the wildest Game 1s in recent memory
The Avalanche and Wild went out and put on the most chaotic game of the second round before anybody else even got going.
Cale Makar scored twice in the third period and added an assist to lead Colorado to a 9-6 win over Minnesota in Game 1 at Ball Arena on Sunday. The 15 combined goals made it just the 10th game in playoff history to hit that mark, per the TNT broadcast.
Makar almost didn’t make it back. He took a heavy hit from Marcus Foligno along the end boards less than five minutes into the first period and went straight down the tunnel after his right leg flew out from under him. The Norris-winning defenseman tested his skating late in the period and returned for the second.
Things got loose in a hurry on both ends. Sam Malinski, Jack Drury, and Artturi Lehkonen scored inside two minutes to put Colorado up 3-0 by 13:13 of the first. Then Minnesota answered with five of the next six. Marcus Johansson, Ryan Hartman, Vladimir Tarasenko, Quinn Hughes, and Foligno (short-handed) flipped a 3-0 hole into a 5-4 lead.
Devon Toews tied it 5-5 late in the second with a wrister that snapped a Wild stick on the way through. The third belonged to Colorado. Makar buried one from the right circle to retake the lead, Nazem Kadri tacked on another, Mats Zuccarello pulled Minnesota back within one, and Makar struck again to push it to 8-6 before Nathan MacKinnon iced it with an empty-netter.
Quinn Hughes finished with a goal and two assists for the Wild, and Jesper Wallstedt stopped 34 of 43 shots. Toews had a goal and three assists, and Martin Necas added three helpers for Colorado. Scott Wedgewood made 30 saves on the other end.
Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar didn’t have much in the way of analysis afterward.
“I cannot. If you scripted that one, I don’t know how you do. I can’t explain it,” Bednar said.
Here is a look at the highlights:
Colorado got all of this without Wild forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin, who were ruled out before puck drop. Game 2 goes Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
