After the heartbreak of a shootout loss on Valentine’s Day, the Avs had their work cut out for them in the second leg of a back-to-back on the road in Minnesota. Colorado embarked on its sixth back-to-back of the season.

The Avs have three consecutive back-to-backs in this stretch to look forward to.

With division points on the line, Colorado knew the score.

Fortunately, defenseman Josh Manson returned to the lineup after missing two months with a lower body injury. His return came about at an opportune time as Cale Makar remained in Colorado to continue resting.

Alexandar Georgiev would get his second start in net after stopping 32 shots in the Tampa Bay Lightning game. Ben Meyers was reassigned to the Colorado Eagles, and the Avs would run 11-7 with Manson back in the lineup.

First Period 

J.T. Compher took the first penalty of the game: an interference on Jared Spurgeon. The kill was successful, Colorado managed two blocks and didn’t allow any shots on net.

At 15:14 into the period, Logan O’Connor battled for the puck in the corner and passed it back to Sam Girard. Girard broke out to Toews in transition and the Avs created an odd man rush. Toews found Andrew Cogliano in the left circle and Cogliano wristed it in.

It was his ninth goal of the season – he had been held to five and under goal totals for the last four seasons.

Colorado was outshot 17-6 in this period. 

The Avs had one powerplay chance. The first powerplay unit had the usual personnel, but this time Jared Bednar had Bo Byram quarterbacking the top unit and Devon Toews worked with Sam Girard on unit two. They generated a shot on net and had another chance blocked.

Minnesota controlled posession and analytically outperformed the Avs.

Second Period

Two minutes into its start, Denis Malgin sent the puck back to Josh Manson in his own end to reset. Manson angled the puck up to Nathan MacKinnon in the neutral zone and passed it up to Malgin who snapped it in from the high slot. It was his second goal in consecutive games.

At 5:50, Mikko Rantanen was called for slashing Kirill Kaprizov. On the subsequent powerplay, Minnesota cycled the puck around the perimeter near the tail end of Colorado’s kill. Matt Boldy passed the puck to Mats Zuccarello at the point and his shot sailed through traffic. Joel Erikkson Ek was credited with the tip in, but it looked like it bounced off a couple bodies.

As the period was winding down, the Avs denied Minnesota entry and reset. Toews sent the puck to Artturi Lehkonen at center ice. Lehkonen tapped it to MacKinnon on his right in one fell swoop. MacKinnon, with a patient release, snapped the puck five-hole through Marc-Andre Fleury at 16:29.

Somehow the Avs managed a two goal lead in a period with fewer shots than the first. The Wild outshot Colorado 13-4.

The Wild controlled possession by a larger margin with a Corsi for percentage of 71.43% at five-on-five play. Colorado allowed fewer high-danger chances at least with just two in this frame. Still, 91.67% of the scoring opportunities were created by Minnesota.

Third Period

At 14:07, Colorado failed to clear the zone and Zuccarello passed the puck to Kirill Kaprizov waiting near the bottom of the left circle. He caught it with his backhand and spun it around and lifted it over Georgiev’s glove to bring the Wild within one goal.

With about two minutes remaining, Minnesota pulled the goaltender for the man-advantage.

Colorado created more in the final period, but they were still outshot 13-9. The final shot tally became 43-19. The Avs created better quality chances than before with five high danger opportunities to Minnesota’s six.

Alexandar Georgiev had to make 18 saves on high-to-medium danger chances. He earned a 0.953 save percentage for the night and had to contend with not only a high shot volume, but plenty of action came inside homeplate.

Tonight was the second of three contests between these two teams. Colorado is now 2-0-0 against the Minnesota Wild with their final matchup set for next month at home.

Analytically, Colorado probably didn’t deserve to win this game save for Georgiev’s solid performance in net; however, their effort in the third period was admirable.

Nathan MacKinnon took extra shifts to fill in the hole within their forward group. He had far and away the most shot attempts of any player with six shots on net and eight additional attempts blocked or missed.

Josh Manson’s return was also a big help. He led the defensemen in hits and blocked shots. Plus, he ate 20:35 minutes of ice time to balance the defensive group so that the top pair of Sam Girard and Devon Toews – who had to do heavy lifting in Tampa – stood a chance despite tired legs.

The Avs would head to St. Louis for a matinee on Saturday before returning home for their game against Edmonton on Sunday.