Avs visit Minnesota seeking redemption

A quick one-game road trip sees the Colorado Avalanche head to St. Paul to take on the Minnesota Wild tonight at 6 p.m. The game can be seen on Altitude and heard on 1510 AM.

The Avalanche lead the Northwest Division with 46 points. Minnesota is fourth with 37.

For Colorado, this is the final visit of the year to the State of Hockey and the Avs must be delighted. Minnesota is 11-1-2 in their past 14 home games against the Avs, including the two this season. The final Avs-Wild contest of the season will be in Denver on Jan. 28.

Overall, MInnesota owns the Avs. They are 12-1-2 in their past 15 games against Colorado. The Avalanche have one regulation victory against the Wild since November 2007.

MINNESOTA

• Tonight, the Wild begin a three-game homestand.
• The primary reason for the Wild’s dominance is goalie Niklas Backstrom. He is 14-2-2 all time against Colorado.
• Their leading scorers are Mikko Koivu with 10 goals and 23 assists for 33 points, and ex-Av Andrew Brunette with 10 goals and 19 assists, 29 points.
• The Wild are hot. They started the season slow but are 7-3-0 in their past 10.
• Minnesota lost a great deal of their equipment Friday when their transport truck caught fire in Ottawa. There was talk of postponing the game, but the Wild was able to scrape up enough gear, old and new, to play. They lost to the Senators 4-1.

COLORADO

• The Avs are hoping to avoid a repeat of last Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the Wild, a game that many consider the Avs’ flattest performance of the year.

• Colorado is coming off Saturday’s win over Columbus, where it scored four times in the first half of the first period and then cruised to a 5-2 victory.

Milan Hejduk scored a goal and two assists Saturday in his return from a knee injury.

• Marek Svatos is close to returning, but he did not make this road trip.
• The Avalanche is tied with Florida, Los Angeles and Montreal for the most games played this season, 37.
• Colorado finished its recent homestead 3-2.

Bruce Wilkie a Colorado semi-native, having moved to Denver in 1971. He has worked with pro and college hockey teams since 1975 and now covers the Avs for thehockeywriters.com.