Avalanche defeat Wild for third straight win

ST. PAUL, Minn. --Brandon Saad and Mikko Rantanen each had a goal and an assist for the Colorado Avalanche in a 5-1 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Nathan MacKinnon, Samuel Girard and Andre Burakovsky each had two assists for Colorado (6-3-0), which has won three straight. Philipp Grubauer made 19 saves.
"[Minnesota] likes to play a tight-checking game. We've been trying to increase our tight-checking games as of late," Saad said. "We wanted to play that way, a little stingy game, and then capitalize on the power play. Special teams did a great job tonight and I thought 5-on-5 we locked it down."
Kaapo Kahkonen made 28 saves for Minnesota (5-4-0), which has lost three of its past four games.
"[Colorado] is good, they're the class of the League," Wild forward Zach Parise said. "They play a good style of hockey. They're fast, the top line is arguably one of the best in the League, so it was a different type of game that we had played in the first eight."

Logan O'Connor, who was making his season debut, gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 3:02 of the first period with a wrist shot that redirected in off Kahkonen's stick, which was lying to his side in the crease.
"It was nice after some extended time off to have a good [offensive]-zone shift there to start and get that goal there," O'Connor said. "Our line's mindset was to keep it simple, hound pucks, be relentless out there and use our speed."
Matt Dumba scored from a sharp angle off the mask of Grubauer to tie it 1-1 at 6:49. Joonas Donskoi scored off a pass from Saad for a power-play goal with 17 seconds left in the period to give Colorado a 2-1 lead.
"[Seven] penalties probably hurt us as much as anything," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We had to expend a lot of energy in that area and weren't able to do obviously what we've done a lot of here at the start of the season.
"It's tough. It gets frustrating because you seem to be chasing the game a little bit because of it. But we'll do better tomorrow for sure."
Rantanen extended the lead to 3-1 at 3:07 of the second period with a shot top shelf after skating across the slot. Saad made it 4-1 at 12:17 of the third period, and J.T. Compher scored on the power play at 14:55 for the 5-1 final.
"I think points aside, you just want to keep improving all year long," said Saad, who has six points (three goals, three assists) in a three-game point streak. "It's a short training camp to get into a quick season, new systems, new team, so you try to mesh and jell as quickly as you can. You just take it game by game. The points are nice and they make you feel good, but it's really game by game, it's a process here. We're looking at the big picture."
NOTES:The teams play here again Sunday. … Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson left the game in the first period after a hit from Wild forward Jordan Greenway. Bednar said it was unlikely Johnson would be in the lineup Sunday but provided no further update. … Wild forward Marcus Johansson left in the second period, and Dumba left in the third period after getting hit by Greenway. Evason did not have an update on either player. … Colorado has outscored its opponents 15-4 in the past three games. … MacKinnon has five assists in a four-game point streak, and Cale Makar has five assists in a three-game point streak.