Wild rally for OT win against Avalanche, keep pace in Central

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Cam Talbot made 40 saves, Kevin Fiala scored 15 seconds into overtime, and the Minnesota Wild rallied for their sixth straight win, 3-2 against the Colorado Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.

Fiala won it on a one-timer from the right circle off a feed from Mats Zuccarello, who had received a drop pass from Joel Eriksson Ek.
"Great entry there by [Eriksson Ek]," Fiala said. "He got it to [Zuccarello] and he found me, so very nice play."
Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist, and Zuccarello had three assists for Minnesota (40-20-4), which also won 3-2 in overtime against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Talbot is 8-0-0 in his past eight starts the Wild, who remained four points ahead of the Nashville Predators for second in the Central Division.
"You look forward to these games. The way we've been playing and where [Colorado is] in the standings, you kind of had this one circled," Talbot said. "It's a good measuring stick, especially after we've been rolling here pretty well lately, and we need some points in our division. These are big games right now, and there's no bigger game than against the No. 1 team in the league."

Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist, and Darcy Kuemper made 26 saves for Colorado (46-14-6), which has lost two of three.
The Avalanche are 10 points ahead of the Calgary Flames for first in the Western Conference.
"I like the way our team played," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "I liked it a lot. I thought it was a good hockey game. I thought our checking game was really good, didn't give up a lot against a dangerous offensive team. Created quite a bit. Didn't finish our chances, obviously took us a long time to get on the board after creating some pretty good chances. Didn't shoot the puck well. But yeah, I liked our game, though. It was a good game for our guys."
Hartman tied it 2-2 at 14:33 of the third period. Zuccarello won a battle with Mikko Rantanen along the right-wing boards and tried to send a pass to Hartman for a tap in. Although his initial attempt was blocked by Devon Toews, the puck came back to Zuccarello, and he quickly passed again to Hartman, who redirected it into an open net.
Kirill Kaprizov gave the Wild a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 18:07 of the second period. He scored on a one-timer from near the right post after receiving a backhand pass from below the goal line from Hartman.
Kaprizov has scored 81 points (36 goals, 45 assists) this season, two shy of tying Marian Gaborik (83 in 2007-08) for the most in Minnesota history.
"To me, personally, it's not something I focus on," Kaprizov said. "It's not something I think about. If I beat it, great. I'd be very happy and honored to do that. But for the most part, I'm focused on the game, doing the best I can and getting wins. If I do that, and our team wins, everything will kind of work out. It would be a great accomplishment."
Kadri tied it 1-1 at 6:21 of the third. He won a face-off back to Toews before scoring on a one-timer from the top of the left circle off a pass from J.T. Compher.

Rantanen put the Avalanche in front 2-1 at 10:03 when he shot glove side from the high slot off another face-off win by Kadri two seconds into a power play.
"I think we outplayed them most of the game," Rantanen said. "We had a lot of chances in the first two that we didn't capitalize."
Colorado outshot Minnesota 42-29.
"We did not shoot the puck enough tonight," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We had opportunities. We were passing it off and not getting the rebound type of thing. We'd like to see a few more, a little more volume of shots getting towards the net.
"But as far as defensively, we thought we competed on loose pucks. We thought we competed on shots that were blocked, and then our rebounds we cleared to the right areas, so we're happy with that end of our game."
NOTES:Colorado has scored at least one power-play goal in seven straight games (9-for-21). …Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. … Colorado acquired forward Nico Sturm in a trade with Minnesota for forward Tyson Jost on March 15. Sturm had one shot and two hits in 13:41 of ice time. Jost had one shot and was minus-1 in 12:16.