Avalanche again too much for Wild, take commanding 2-0 series lead

The Colorado Avalanche forced a Wild goalie change after only one game of their playoff series.

It didn’t work, at least not enough to spark Minnesota.

The Avs beat the Wild 5-2 on Tuesday night to extend their series lead to 2-0 in the second-round showdown.

Minnesota head coach John Hynes went from Jesper Wallstedt in net in Game 1 to Filip Gustavsson for Game 2. Wallstedt gave up eight goals on Sunday, but certainly not all of them were his fault.

Gustavsson didn’t fare much better, although this one never got out of hand. He gave up four goals and the Avs will head to St. Paul two games from eliminating the Wild.

Minnesota actually outshot Colorado 31-23, but Scott Wedgewood was up for the task after allowing six goals in the first game. He finished with 29 saves and received plenty of “Wedgie” chants from Avs faithful.

Particularly in the third period Wedgewood came up clutch time and time again, making Jared Bednar look smart for not making a panic switch of his own to Mackenzie Blackwood.

The Wild couldn’t solve Wedgewood until it was too late and started taking bad penalties, leading to a Nathan MacKinnon power play goal.

It was an absolute laser from MacKinnon, arguably the best player on Earth, to essentially put the game away and extend the Colorado edge to 4-1.

A rocket from MacKinnon 🚀 pic.twitter.com/8HYTbp7LW0

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) May 6, 2026

Minnesota would get a goal from Marcus Johansson to slice the lead back to 4-2, but could never get any closer. Valeri Nichushkin’s empty-netter with mere seconds left was the cherry on top.

And in the second period it was Nicolas Roy finding the back of the net for the Avalanche… again.

The trade deadline acquisition scored his third goal of the playoffs, extending Colorado’s lead to 3-1. Roy was the hero in Game 2 against the Kings in Round 1 and also scored in Game 4.

This time he took a pass from Ross Colton and didn’t miss, beating Gustavsson clean. Roy became the 11th goalscorer of the series in just two games for the Avs, tying an NHL record. Nichushkin’s goal would eventually break it with 12 guys finding the back of the net for Colorado through 120 minutes of hockey.

Nicolas Roy extends the @Avalanche lead!!!

📺: @espn, @Sportsnet, & @TVASports pic.twitter.com/vzNLQwbSTH

— NHL (@NHL) May 6, 2026

The first period, at times, felt a lot like Game 1.

There were three goals in the opening 8:24 as the crowd filed into Ball Arena with a 6:10 p.m. MT start, rush-hour traffic and a May snowstorm in Denver.

But that didn’t stop the Avalanche from starting fast as Martin Necas got the party going with a slick backhand fewer than three minutes in. MacKinnon set up Necas, a combo fans saw all year long.

It only took the Wild six seconds to respond. Kirill Kaprizov got lost on the face-off and beat Wedgewood with a snipe. That tied things 1-1.

Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog would restore order on the power play shortly after, scoring a beautiful goal off another great assist from MacKinnon. It gave Colorado its lead back at 2-1.

IT'S 2-1 COLORADO!

Nathan MacKinnon with the feed to Gabriel Landeskog!

📺: @espn, @Sportsnet, & @TVASports pic.twitter.com/2GiHhJXz7T

— NHL (@NHL) May 6, 2026

Ultimately after the chaos of Game 1 and chaotic start to Game 2, things settled down a bit on the scoreboard. Although there was a noticeable physicality from both sides in the third.

But the result stayed the same with the Avalanche emerging victorious in both contests.

Now the teams will have an abnormally long playoff rest with Game 3 not slated until Saturday night in Minnesota. If Colorado wins that one then this series will be all but over.

However, given the Avalanche’s struggles to get past Round 2 in years past, focus should remain at an all-time high.

That’s now six playoff triumphs down with another 10 to go to hoist a fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history.

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