Colorado brought a 2-0 series lead to St. Paul on Friday night and had a chance to put Minnesota on the edge of elimination with a win in Game 3. The Avalanche needed one more road victory to take a 3-0 lead and move to within a single game of returning to the Western Conference Final.
The Avalanche have looked in control through the first two games, scoring 12 combined goals against Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson while getting goals from 11 different skaters. Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon were the only Colorado players to score more than once in the series, and MacKinnon entered the night atop the postseason points race with 10.
Scott Wedgewood was expected to start in goal after stopping 29 of 31 shots in Game 2, a performance that held up even after Marcus Johansson scored late in the third period to cut Minnesota’s deficit. Wedgewood was also trying to extend a run of seven consecutive playoff wins, a streak that has become one of the defining reasons Colorado has been able to separate itself in this matchup.
Bednar said Friday that Jack Ahcan would not travel with the team to St. Paul, adding, “We feel good about it. That’s why Jack’s not here.” The Avalanche had two extra days of rest before Game 3, and that pause came after a first two rounds in which Colorado had already advanced past Los Angeles before taking the early lead over Minnesota.
The lineup projected for Colorado included Artturi Lehkonen, MacKinnon, Martin Nečas, Gabe Landeskog, Brock Nelson, Valeri Nichushkin and Ross Colton, a group that has spread the scoring across the roster while putting pressure on Minnesota’s goaltending. MacKinnon shared the postseason assist lead with Nečas at six, Makar shared the goal lead with four, and Nečas, Landeskog and Devon Toews each had seven postseason points entering the game.
The matchup was scheduled for HBO Max, TNT, truTV, CBC, SN, SN1, SN+, TVAS and TVAS+, with radio coverage on Altitude Sports Radio KKSE-FM 92.5 FM. Inside Grand Casino Arena, Colorado was stepping into a hostile crowd with a 2-0 series lead, and the path from there was simple: win once more and the avalanche vs wild series would tilt sharply toward an Avalanche team that has already done most of the hard work.
