The Colorado Avalanche lead the Minnesota Wild, 1-0, after the first period, but it has been anything but a clean game for either side. A total of 40 penalty minutes were racked up by the two teams.
Jay McClement scored the only goal of the game at 3:05 in the period when he came down on the left wing and shot it to the opposite side of the net, past Matt Hackett. The Avalanche have put 12 shots on net while only allowing the Wild to get nine on Semyon Varlamov. Devin Setoguchi had a chance at tying the game in the late seconds of the period, but Varlamov wound up making a huge save while winding up on ice once he made the block.
Most of the penalties were doled out as a result of fighting. Jamie McGinn and Kyle Brodziak each received a five-minute major for fighting, but Brodziak also took a two-minute instigator and a 10-minute misconduct. Later Erik Johnson and Warren Peters got into fisticuffs and took five-minute majors at 15:56.
For more coverage, visit our Avalanche blog Mile High Hockey and our Wild blog Hockey Wilderness.