Associated Press
All the hats thrown onto the ice weren’t a big surprise. Zach Parise did have a hat trick.
On the road, though? Now that stunned Parise a little bit.
Not nearly as stunned as the Colorado Avalanche were after blowing a big lead.
Parise scored three times, including the tiebreaking tally in the third period, and the Minnesota Wild overcame a three-goal deficit to beat the Avalanche 5-4 on Thursday night.
“It was two really good teams playing and it was entertaining,” said Parise, who recorded his third career hat trick. “It was rewarding for us to play better in the third period and sneak out with a win.”
Trailing 4-1 in the final period, the Wild had four goals in a 5:07 span to bewilder the Avalanche. Parise scored twice, while Thomas Vanek and Nino Niederreiter added the other two.
Parise beat Semyon Varlamov with a slap shot to put Minnesota up for good midway through the third period. Colorado pulled Varlamov twice for an extra skater in the final two minutes but couldn’t score on Devan Dubnyk.
It took the Wild a bit to get going, but once they did there was no stopping them.
“We weren’t on for sure,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “It looked like the type of game you play after a weeklong break after you play a couple of, I hate to say it, easy exhibition games. We pretty much kind of slept-walked through the first two periods. It felt like once they got up they really tried to run at us and that kind of woke our guys up.”
After the game, Yeo was a little bothered that a team doctor didn’t come in to the dressing room to check on a banged-up Niederreiter.
“They only had one doctor here. He went off to get looked at but they had no doctor to take a look at him,” Yeo said. “I guess he was watching the game. I’m not sure.”
Jarome Iginla, Erik Johnson and Gabriel Landeskog had goals in the first period for Colorado. John Mitchell added another in the second as the Avalanche built what appeared to be a comfortable lead before the Wild stormed back.
Varlamov stopped 19 of 20 shots before unravelling in the third period.
“When you score four goals, those games you should win,” Varlamov said. “There’s a time when the goalie has to step up and stop those shots, it doesn’t matter if they are tough ones or easy ones. I didn’t play well tonight.”
The game boiled down to momentum and Colorado couldn’t get it back.
“We were really, really good for 45 minutes,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “All of a sudden, they score that second goal and the momentum shifted. We just couldn’t stop it.
“We can’t be happy about that.”
Parise nearly had a goal in the first period, when he outraced everyone to a loose puck at centre ice and skated in alone on Varlamov. But he clanged a shot off the left post.
After that, it was all Avs in the opening period as Iginla beat Dubnyk with a wrist shot, Johnson knocked in a shot off a slap shot and Landeskog added a third by tipping in the puck following a carom off the boards.
Two of them were on power plays. They were 29th on the power play a year ago. This from an Avalanche team that struggled to score goals in the pre-season.
Teenager Mikko Rantanen showed some nerves in his NHL debut, with the puck rolling under his stick on his first scoring chance. At 18 years, 344 days, he’s the fifth-youngest player to suit up for the Avalanche. Nathan MacKinnon tops the list, making his debut on Oct 2, 2013, against Anaheim at 18 years, 31 days.
Elsehwere in the NHL:
St Louis Blues 3, Edmonton Oilers 1
Rookie Robby Fabbri broke a tie midway through the third period to help the St Louis Blues beat Edmonton 3-1 on Thursday night, spoiling Oilers rookie Connor McDavid’s NHL debut.
Vladimir Tarasenko had the tying goal for the Blues in the second period, and Troy Brouwer added an empty-netter with 18 seconds remaining in the third. Brian Elliott finished with 23 saves.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored in the first period for Edmonton, and Cam Talbot stopped 28 shots.
McDavid, the No 1 overall pick in the June draft, took 22 shifts, played 18:07 and was on the ice for Brouwer’s goal. He had two shots on goal, and struggled on faceoffs – winning only three of 13.
Winnipeg Jets 6, Boston Bruins 2
Chris Thorburn and Nicolas Petan scored in the third period after Boston came within one goal, and Winnipeg opened the season with a victory.
It was the first victory for the former Atlanta Thrashers in Boston since 2007, before the franchise moved to Winnipeg. The Bruins had beaten the Thrashers and Jets 13 consecutive times in Boston.
Ondrej Pavelec made 29 saves for the Jets. Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler and Drew Stafford scored in the second period to give the Jets a 3-1 lead.
David Pastrnak stickhandled along the left side before wristing it past Pavelec to make it 3-2 early in the third. But less than 4 minutes later, Thorburn sneaked through the defence and put a bouncing puck past Tuukka Rask to make it 4-2. Petan deflected a puck off his skate and into the net midway through the final period to make it 5-2. Alexander Burmistrov added an empty-netter
David Krejci also scored for Boston, and Rask made 26 saves.
Tampa Bay Lightning 3, Philadelphia Flyers 2, OT
Jason Garrison scored his second goal of the game in overtime to lift Tampa Bay past Philadelphia in Flyers coach Dave Hakstol’s NHL debut.
Garrison scored on a breakaway at 2:17 of the extra session, the NHL’s first 3-on-3 overtime in the regular season. The NHL moved overtime from 4-on-4 to the new setup this season.
Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop faced his second penalty shot 1:27 into overtime and made a pad save on Scott Laughton. The Lightning also got a goal from Ryan Callahan.
Matt Read and Brayden Schenn scored for the Flyers. Hakstol spent the past 11 seasons coaching at the University of North Dakota.
Ottawa Senators 3, Buffalo Sabres 1
Kyle Turris scored twice and Ottawa won a coach’s challenge to overturn a Buffalo goal in the Senators’ victory over the Sabres.
The outcome was essentially decided with 9:26 remaining, when Buffalo’s Evander Kane scored on a wraparound that would have tied it at 2. Senators coach Dave Cameron challenged the goal, and a video review showed Sabres forward Zemgus Girgensons was offside.
Kane’s disallowed goal came 1:23 after Sabres 18-year-old rookie centre Jack Eichel scored a power-play goal. Curtis Lazar sealed it with an empty-netter with 1:04 left. Craig Anderson made 26 saves for the victory.
Nashville Predators 2, Carolina Hurricanes 1
Craig Smith had a power-play goal and Nashville scored twice in the first period against Carolina.
Viktor Arvidsson scored the first NHL goal, and Seth Jones had two assists. Pekka Rinne made 25 saves, allowing only Eric Staal’s goal with 1:40 left. The Hurricanes lost defenceman James Wisniewski early to a lower-body injury.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
