The Colorado Avalanche picked up a 7-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night, but not without a loss of its own. Forward Matt Duchene left the game during the third period with an apparent right ankle injury. His status has not been updated yet
Colorado held a 1-0 lead after the first period and then extended that to 5-0 after the second period. In that middle frame, the Avalanche scored all five goals in a span of 5:41, and the last three in slightly over two minutes. The Wild wound up getting on the board with a Devin Setoguchi penalty shot on what the referee called hooking by Matt Hunwick. Paul Stastny and Cody McLeod added the final two goals for the Avalanche.
This was a penalty-laden game before the hooking call on Hunwick. In the first period, the Avalanche and the Wild combined for 40 penalties minutes, mostly due to fighting. Things slowed dramatically during the final two periods, but Kyle Brodziak picked up 17 penalty minutes for fighting, for instigating the fight and a misconduct.
Semyon Varlamov stopped 21 of 22 shots while the Wild went with two goals. Matt Hackett allowed four goals on 21 shots before Josh Harding came in during the second goal, allowing three more over the remainder of the game.
The Avalanche (35-29-4, 74 points) are tied with the Los Angeles Kings in points, but they remain out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
For more coverage, visit our Avalanche blog Mile High Hockey and our Wild blog Hockey Wilderness.