The Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche meet up tonight in Game 1 of the NHL Playoffs First Round. The game is scheduled for a 9:30 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on CNBC. Currently the Avalanche are favored at home to get the win.
Patrick Roy has done a remarkable job with the Colorado Avalanche in his rookie season. The Avs were one of the worst teams in the league last season, but this year found a way to win 52 games and finish with more than 100 points. They'll take on a Minnesota Wild team that had 43 victories on the season and is looking to play the spoiler role in this series.
The Avalanche were 4-0-1 against Minnesota this season. Colorado managed to average three goals in those games, but didn't register a single tally on the power play. The Avs finished as the fifth best power play team in the league and we expect it to show up in this series against Minnesota, who was one of the worst penalty kill units in the league at less than 80 percent.
Colorado finished the regular season with 3.0 goals per game this season, which ranked fourth best in the NHL.
This is the second straight playoff appearance for the Wild. The second straight playoff spot is just the second time in team history they've accomplished that feat. But they haven't had a lot of success in these playoffs — Minnesota hasn't won a playoff series since the 2003 season when they reached the conference finals.
No. 1 pick Nathan MacKinnon led all rookies with 63 points and had a 13-game point streak during the regular season, which is the longest mark by an 18-year-old player and longer than Wayne Gretzky's streak at that age. The first overall selection being brought up to the big show has paid off so far for the Avalanche, but they're expecting a lot of him in this post season.
Minnesota spent a lot of money on Zach Parise in free agency and it's paying off for the club in his two years there so far. This season Parise scored 29 goals, just one off the team lead by Jason Pominville. They are by far the two go-to scorers for Minnesota, whose third-leading scorer Nino Niederreiter had only 14 tallies.
In goaltending, the Wild have had to start several guys this season but they'll go with Ilya Bryzgalov, who went 7-1-3 down the stretch. Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov won 41 games this season, which led the league.
Tonight we like Minnesota to pull a mild upset. They haven't beaten Colorado all season but tonight we think they sneak up and get the win.
Free Pick: Minnesota 3, Colorado 2
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