Hours after the Avalanche acquired another backup goalie on Saturday, Philipp Grubauer again proved his new backup won’t have to play much, if at all, as long as he and his cohesive teammates remain healthy.
Minnesota likes to call itself the State of Hockey. But the Wild might be in the State of Shock after losing by a combined 11-1 in its two-game set against the Avalanche at Ball Arena.
Grubauer and Avs cruised to their sixth consecutive victory, 6-0, over Minnesota, finishing 7-1-1 on a club-record-long homestand.
Grubauer, who also earned the 5-1 win on Thursday against the Wild, made 31 saves for his NHL-leading fifth shutout of the season. He also leads the league in goals-against average (1.74) and is third in save percentage (.929).
“He was great tonight,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of Grubauer, who has 18 victories in 25 appearances.
The Avalanche outshot the Wild 97-51 in the two-game set, including 55-20 in the series opener. Grubauer said he didn’t play any better than any of his teammates.
“Everybody is working hard, everybody is doing the right things in the D-zone, blocking shots,” Grubauer said. “Incredible work from everybody back there.”
He added: “Two huge games against Minny. That’s a team we might see in the playoffs. So we want to make a statement.”
The top line of center Nathan MacKinnon and wingers Gabe Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen had 17 points (six goals) in the series. Rantanen had three goals, Landeskog two and MacKinnon one. MacKinnon had three assists Saturday, setting up goals by Landeskog and defensemen Cale Makar and Devon Toews.
Landeskog also had a three-point game, with two assists, to extend his season-best points streak to four (two goals, six assists).
“We were trying to pick up where we left off the other night,” Landeskog said. “We wanted to have the same kind of start, which we did, came out and scored a couple in the first and keep going in the second.”
Third-line forwards Tyson Jost and Valeri Nichushkin also put pucks past Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen.
Colorado, which led 2-0 after the first period and 5-0 after the second, entered the series a point behind the second-place Wild in the West Division standings. The Avs (19-8-2) are now three points ahead of Minnesota (18-10-1) and trail division-leading Vegas (21-6-1) by just three.
“We’re playing good hockey throughout our lineup,” Bednar said. “We’re committed on both sides of the puck and we’re starting to put real strong performances together over the course of this homestand. I don’t know if there was a game I didn’t like. There may have been a period here or two. But I think every game of the homestand we played pretty well.”
The Avalanche departs for Arizona on Sunday and will begin a consecutive-night series against the Coyotes on Monday and Gila River Arena.
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Philipp Grubauer, Avalanche again dominate Minnesota Wild at Ball Arena - The Denver Post
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