The Minnesota Wild suffered a terrible loss on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators, squandering a 4-1 lead with 10:38 left in the game to ultimately lose by a score of 5-4. However, they rebounded quite nicely on Thursday night on their trip to Denver, as they held off the Colorado Avalanche by a score of 1-0.
Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom was brilliant in net for Minnesota, stopping all 37 shots that he faced. It was the third shutout for Backstrom this season and the 25th of his NHL career. The victory helped to continue Minnesota's dominance over Colorado, as the Wild are 10-1-2 in their last 13 visits to the Pepsi Center. The victory also pushed Minnesota into the eighth spot in the Western Conference playoff chase, three games ahead of the Avalanche. The Avs have also played two more games than Minnesota has thus far this season.
The game's lone goal came in the first period, and it came off of the stick of Greg Zanon, who got just his second goal of the season by blasting a shot past Colorado goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere a little more than six minutes into the game. Dany Heatley and Kyle Brodziak were credited with assists on the goal.
The Wild will continue their road trip into the weekend, as they head into the American Airlines Arena on Saturday night to do battle with the Dallas Stars, who currently sit three points behind the Wild in the Western Conference playoff chase as well.