- Aug 5, 2011
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Big game this afternoon.
wild.com Preview
wild.com Preview
DENVER – The Minnesota Wild (36-28-11) and the Colorado Avalanche (38-32-4) will play for the final time in the regular season on Saturday, at Pepsi Center, in a game that will go a long way in determining which team makes the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Wild enters Saturday leading the Avalanche by three points for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. Colorado has played one fewer game, and also has one more regulation and overtime win, the first tiebreaker in the standings.
A Minnesota regulation victory would see the Wild open up a five-point lead on Colorado, and equal the Avalanche's 34 regulation and overtime victories.
"It's a big plus that way, but we have to come out and play a solid 60 minutes," interim Head Coach John Torchetti. "They're pretty hungry themselves coming off a loss against [Philadelphia], and we have to be prepared for probably that first five or 10 minutes push that they have, and handle it, and then get our game going."
The Wild has won three of the first four games against the Avalanche this season, and has earned seven of a possible eight points against Colorado.
"When the pressure is on, we usually play pretty well, so we'll be ready to go," Charlie Coyle said.
Minnesota is also currently on a four-game winning streak, matching a season high, done twice previously. Each of three winning streaks have come in the past six week under Torchetti.
Its latest victory came against the Calgary Flames, 6-2, on Thursday. Forward Zach Parise recorded a hat trick, his NHL-leading third of the season. Parise also now leads the Wild with 22 goals.
"There's kind of been a bit of a build up here the last week knowing what could possibly happen," Matt Dumba said. "It's a big four-point game. We've set ourselves up nicely getting these two wins this week, and this would be huge for us."
Parise recorded one of his other hat tricks in the Wild's season-opener, against Colorado. The Wild trailed 4-1 entering the third period but scored four times in 5:07 to win, 5-4.
In the Wild's four games against the Avalanche this season, Parise has four goals and three assists. In 18 career games for Minnesota against Colorado, Parise has 10 goals and 13 assists.
The Wild also defeated Colorado this season twice in Saint Paul: 3-0 in December, a combined shutout by Devan Dubnyk and Darcy Kuemper, and 6-3 in March, behind two goals from both Coyle and Nino Niederreiter.
Minnesota's lone loss against the Avalanche was in December, a 2-1 overtime defeat.
Colorado is expected to be without forwards Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon, who each missed the Avalanche's past game with knee injuries.
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