Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche: Post game pondering

The Wild did a good job of limiting the Avs play in the first period. The Avs didn’t have very many decent attempts, and most of the period was spent in the Avs zone. The downside of course, was the fact that the Wild didn’t have more than a few good chances themselves.

You could tell in the second period that the Wild had let up on their pressure. The Avs went from having 3 SOG in the first to having 10 before the first half of the period was over. Gabriel Landeskog scored the game’s first goal just before the halfway point, and Ryan O’Reilly followed up with a goal just under 4 minutes later.

But then Charlie Coyle went into beast mode. Within 40 seconds not only did he decide that the Avs were going to be his mid-game snack, but screw you he’d do it on his own. With some help from none-other than Dany Heatley.

The third period was full of activity from both sides, but the Avs managed to walk away with a 4-2 victory, and extended the gap between the 3^rd and 4^th place in #conferenceIII.

The optimistic area of tonight’s game was the fact that Heatley and Coyle are developing some great chemistry together, which is only going to benefit the team. Heatley needs a wingman to be successful, and Coyle might be the guy for him.

Most of the comments from the locker room were about not lettingthis one loss get the team down. They need to rebound quickly with their next game being tomorrow night in Nashiville.

All in all, this game could have gone either way. It sucks that it didn’t work out for the Wild, but they’ll get a chance to redeem themselves against a desperate Nashville team.