Known more for his shot, the Minnesota Wild forward clanged a pair of line drives off the goal post, only to have the puck carom straight to teammates and result in two assists for Heatley.

That’s just how things have been going of late for the Wild, who scored a season-high four goals in the first period to beat the slumping Colorado Avalanche 6-4 on Saturday.

Even shots slightly off the mark eventually find their mark.

“I’ll take it,” Heatley said. “We have four lines rolling right now.”

The Wild sure do, with 11 players earning at least a point in this game. Devin Setoguchi led the way with two goals along with adding the 100th assist of his NHL career.

“Anytime you can get that, it’s fun,” Setoguchi said. “More importantly, I got my 100th and we got the win.”

Ryan Suter started a four-goal scoring spree in the first period to help the Wild win for the fourth time in five games. Cal Clutterbuck, Kyle Brodziak and Pierre-Marc Bouchard also added goals.

This was the second half of a home-and-home between the two teams, with Minnesota winning 5-3 on Thursday night.

John Mitchell, P.A. Parenteau, Gabriel Landeskog and Chuck Kobasew had goals for an Avalanche team that has dropped three in a row. Jean-Sebastien Giguere was roughed up in his first home start of the season, allowing four goals on 14 shots before giving way to Semyon Varlamov at the start of the second period.

Niklas Backstrom was solid in net, stopping 28 shots to move to 23-5-3 lifetime against the Avalanche.

Setoguchi all but wrapped up the win with his second goal midway through the third period when he slipped a shot through the pads of Varlamov. It was Setoguchi’s first two-goal game of the season.

“We’ve got such a big, strong team that can skate,” Setoguchi said. “It’s tough to defend.”

Kobasew scored with 1:53 remaining to make it a two-goal game, and the Avalanche pulled Varlamov but couldn’t take advantage of the extra skater.

Colorado worked its way back into the contest in the second period with goals from Parenteau and Landeskog. But the Avalanche made a costly mistake in their zone, when Landeskog tried to send a pass across the middle. Bouchard intercepted the puck and backhanded a shot by Varlamov to make it 5-3.

Landeskog lamented his poor choice after the game.

“Any team is going to capitalize on those chances,” the Avalanche captain said. “It’s deflating, especially because we battled back so hard and got back to 4-3 and then I throw that puck away. It’s frustrating.”

Time is slipping away for the Avalanche as they tumble farther and farther in the standings.

“We’ve got to figure it out here and start to work together,” said Duchene, who had two assists, giving him 10 points in his last five games. “It’s not effort and it’s not talent. We’ve got both of those. I think it’s just concentration. Everyone is so scared to make mistakes.”

The first period featured two fights, three roughing calls and two Wild goals before fans even had a chance to settle into their seats. Suter got Minnesota started on the right note with a shot over Giguere’s left shoulder.

Soon after, Setoguchi scored on a similar shot on a screened Giguere. Clutterbuck and Brodziak also added goals on “passes” from Heatley.

The four goals in the opening 20 minutes brought the day to an end for Giguere. He sat on the bench as Varlamov took his spot in goal.

Minnesota was without forward Jason Zucker for a second straight game. The rookie has what the team is calling an upper-body injury after a violent blindside collision with Corey Perry that brought the Anaheim right winger a four-game suspension.

Zucker is on the trip with the Wild and possibly could play Monday night in Vancouver against the Canucks, a team the Wild are chasing in the Northwest Division race.

“That’s our biggest challenge now,” Clutterbuck said. “I don’t think we expect to score four goals in the first period every game but we expect to play the same way every game.”

Game notes

Wild D Brett Clark was a scratch for a second straight game after being signed for the rest of the season on Thursday. Clark played five-plus seasons for Colorado. … Avs D Ryan Wilson (ankle) was a scratch. … Colorado dropped to 2-1 in day games this season. … Avs F Milan Hejduk was a scratch after returning to the lineup Thursday at Minnesota, his first game back after sitting out five straight with a torso injury.

The post Devin Setoguchi’s pair leads Wild’s outburst vs. Avs appeared first on IdealCapper.

Just like the Chicago Blackhawks.

Chicago extended its NHL-record season-opening points streak to 22 games Sunday when Kane scored the tying goal on a power play with 2:02 left in regulation and the Blackhawks earned an extra point when the star forward scored the only goal in a shootout of a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

“Just amazing what’s going on,” Kane said.

Corey Crawford was perfect in the shootout and finished with 32 saves to help Chicago win a ninth straight game.

“He had several big saves, particularly right after they scored to go up one,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “He kept us in there to make it a one-goal game and gave us a chance.”

The Blackhawks have earned at least a point in 28 straight games — dating to a March 25, 2012 loss in regulation to Nashville — to tie the second-longest streak in league history. They’ve matched Montreal’s multi-season points run from the 1977-78 season and trail only Philadelphia’s streak of 35 straight games with at least a point during the 1979-80 season.

“It’s impressive,” Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard acknowledged after making 32 saves. “They’re finding different ways to do it every single night.”

It looked like Chicago’s sensational streak of success might end when Detroit’s Tomas Tatar broke a scoreless tie early in the third period and Howard stopped every puck that came his way.

Kane and Crawford had other ideas.

“We keep finding a way to keep ourselves in the game or win it at the end,” Kane said.

The Red Wings hurt their chances by getting called for delay of game twice toward the end of regulation for putting the puck out of play.

Chicago took advantage of the first of two late power plays with forward Viktor Stalberg getting more of the puck than Detroit defenseman Kyle Quincey did, pushing it to Kane to set up a one-timer that made it 1-1.

Kane scored from the bottom of the right circle and pivoted toward the crowd, shouting with joy as he pumped his gloves toward the banner-filled rafters.

“He knew the importance of it to get us to overtime,” Quenneville said.

With a sold-out crowd on its feet for a shootout at the end of an entertaining afternoon of hockey, Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk was denied on a low attempt by Crawford’s pads on the first attempt. Jonathan Toews then went high and couldn’t get a shot past Howard’s glove.

Red Wings rookie Damien Brunner made some nifty moves next, but couldn’t keep the puck and for that, Crawford looked thankful as the two met face to face on the ice.

Kane then stole the show, slowly skating toward Howard and lifting his right skate off the ice twice before flipping a wrist shot past him to make the fans at Joe Louis Arena sigh.

“He’s got great skill,” Howard said.

On Detroit’s third attempt in the heart-pounding shootout, Henrik Zetterberg couldn’t extend the game.

“I don’t think we were close to perfect and we almost beat them anyway,” Zetterberg said.

The Red Wings had chances to win in regulation, and in overtime, but Crawford was effective in his return to the net.

Crawford slid to his left to get a piece of Johan Franzen’s shot with 1:40 left in overtime, and the two talked about the play during the subsequent break.

Both teams were inches away from scoring in the final seconds of overtime, with Detroit’s Brendan Smith just missing an opportunity to the left of the net and Kane’s shot squirting past Howard before it trickled just to right of the other net.

The Blackhawks dominated the first period, but Howard — and his teammates — prevented them from scoring on two power plays. The second period was evenly played, then Detroit finally got a shot past Crawford at 2:43 of the third.

Patrick Eaves got to a loose puck behind Chicago’s net, pushed it to Joakim Andersson, whose sharp pass set up Tatar perfectly on the side of the net to beat Crawford.

A bit later, Crawford made a spectacular glove save to deny Datsyuk’s chance that could’ve given the Red Wings a two-goal lead — and perhaps the win in regulation.

Quenneville gave Crawford the start in Detroit after he left his last game Thursday night in St. Louis with an upper-body injury that Quenneville insisted isn’t the same one that forced the goaltender off the ice earlier in the season.

Crawford didn’t get much work early, making just three saves in the first period. He stopped 12 shots in the second — as did Howard — in a fast-pace game filled with end-to-end action and few whistles.

“It was a fun game,” Zetterberg said. “Fans were really into it from the start. These are the games you’re looking forward to play. Unfortunately we couldn’t come up with the win.”

Game notes

The previous record for season-opening points streak was 16 set by the Anaheim Ducks during the 2006-07 season. … Chicago plans to have F Dave Bolland (upper-body injury) back in the lineup Tuesday at home against Minnesota. … Detroit hopes F Valtteri Filppula, out with shoulder injury, can return by next weekend. … Blackhawks F Marian Hossa, a former Red Wing, played in his 1,000th NHL game, a milestone that was recognized by the public address announcer amid a chorus of boos.

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