Wild Top Avs Thursday Night At The X

The Wild scored early and fought often in a win over the Avalanche Thursday night at the Xcel Energy Center.

The Minnesota Wild topped the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center.

Sparked by a Zenon Konopka scrap with longtime Wild nemesis Cody McLeod, Torrey Mitchell started the scoring for Minnesota at 3:04 of the first period with the assist credited to Matt Cullen. The Avs responded with a late first period power play goal to send the game to the first intermission tied at one.

Devin Setoguchi's seventh goal of the season at 8:01 of the second period gave Minnesota a 2-1 lead that became 3-1 at 9:43 when Jonas Brodin notched his first career goal.

Colorado's Gabriel Landeskong cut the Wild lead to a single goal at 10:06 but the Wild re-established a two goal cushion with a Mikko Koivu goal at 11:12.

Colorado got a goal early in the third to make it 4-3, but Koivu scored on the empty net to seal the win for the Wild.