Open Thread: Round 2 Game 5, Colorado Avalanche at Minnesota Wild (6:00 p.m.)

Parker Kelly scored the game-winner last time out. Still, the adjustment I’d like to see from him in particular is to avoid taking silly penalties or getting involved in any more coincidental roughing minors.

The Wild have struggled to score at 5-on-5 against the Avalanche, and any version of the Avalanche with four or fewer players on the ice seems to be their best bet at getting on the board.

We still don’t know who will get the nod, but if the “ride the hot hand” logic still holds, it should be MacKenzie Blackwood’s net yet again.

Either way, the Avalanche can’t chase this game and has to keep the Wild in front of them.

We’ve seen how goals are scored this time of year, and I’m not sure how much more proof this Avs team needs. Get the puck toward the net and battle in the tough areas, and you’ll be rewarded. Do it well enough, and you’ll earn yourself a couple of days off!

Projected Lineup:

Gabriel Landeskog — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Ross Colton — Brock Nelson — Nicolas Roy
Valeri Nichushkin — Nazem Kadri — Logan O’Connor
Parker Kelly — Jack Drury — Joel Kiviranta

Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Brett Kulak — Brent Burns
Jack Ahcan — Josh Manson

MacKenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood

Minnesota Wild

Wild head coach John Hynes was not too pleased with his club following their game four loss, stating his team made a “conscious decision” not to play the way they know they can and have to against the Avalanche.

They have been leaning hard on their top pair with Quinn Hughes logging 34+ minutes of ice time in game four, and with Joonas Brodin still on the mend, I don’t expect that to change.

Brodin and Joel Eriksson-Ek did not make the trip to Denver, so the Wild will have to find a way with who’ve they have gone with so far this series.

Here are three keys to victory for the Wild:

1. Score early.
2. Stay aggressive
3. Draw penalties.

The start of game three was promising for the Wild as they cashed in on the double minor and got on the board first. Before game four, the Wild were 4-0 in games in which they scored first.

I’d say they still want to get out on the front foot, especially in front of what will be a raucous crowd at Ball Arena.

What Minny didn’t do in game four was keep the pedal to the medal and force Colorado out of their structure by building on that lead.

Lastly, as mentioned previously, the Wild have had their most dangerous looks in power play and 4-on-4 situations, so I expect a lot of post-whistle shenanigans to open up some ice for ‘Kirill the Thrill.’

Speaking of post-whistle shenanigans, the Wild could go for retribution after Manson’s butt-end incident and Michael McCarron’s intermission callout.

It would be pretty silly to do that during an elimination game, but you never know!

Projected Lineup:

Kirill Kaprizov — Ryan Hartman — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Danila Yurov — Matt Boldy
Yakov Trenin — Michael McCarron — Vladimir Tarasenko
Marcus Foligno — Nico Sturm — Nick Foligno

Quinn Hughes — Brock Faber
Daemon Hunt — Jared Spurgeon
Jacob Middleton — Zach Bogosian

Jesper Wallstedt
Filip Gustavsson