Wild vs. Avalanche Game 1: Colorado wins 15-goal slugfest, kicking off heavyweight bout with a bang

DENVER — What we learned Sunday night is that the Minnesota Wild aren’t going to dominate the high-flying Colorado Avalanche at even strength the way they did the Dallas Stars.After giving up four five-on-five goals in six games against the Stars, Jesper Wallstedt and the Wild, without two of their best defensive players in Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin, gave up seven five-on-five goals and nine in total on Saturday night at Ball Arena. During an absolutely wild 9-6 Colorado win, it felt like the Avs generated more scoring chances and odd-man rushes in three periods than the Wild gave up all series against Dallas.Advertisement