Wild opens season with back-to-back shutouts over Avalanche

If you read my Darcy Kuemper story in Saturday's paper here, the young goalie expected a different game in Saturday's rematch against Colorado and a much tougher challenge than his 16-save shutout Thursday in Minnesota.

Different game, same outcome though.

Tested much more than Thursday, Kuemper, 24, stood big in net during the Wild's 3-0 win tonight. He became the first goalie since Roberto Luongo in 2005 to open a season with consecutive shutouts. The Wild and Sharks became the first NHL teams to open a season with back-to-back shutouts since Florida in 2005.

Kuemper made 30 saves and his career-best shutout streak stands at 119 minutes, 44 seconds (goalie's personal shutout streaks are their time on ice, not the team, so he actually played 59:52 Thursday and Saturday because he was on the bench 8 seconds in each for delayed penalties).

That will stand for at least another five days because the Wild don't have a game until Friday in Anaheim. The team will take Sunday off, practice in Minnesota on Monday and Tuesday and then head to So. Cal for a little team bonding Wednesday and a Thursday practice.

This game had a playoff feel right from the start. The Avs were intense, physical and totally engaged – everything they weren't in Minnesota two nights earlier.

"They came hard. They came real hard," coach Mike Yeo said. "That's a proud team over there, so we expected that. Definitely pleased with what our guys were able to do tonight."

"I'd be very surprised. I'd be very surprised," Patrick Roy said when asked if he thought Johnson would be suspended. "There was no elbow there. I watched it about 20 times. I have the video to look at it."

Haula said he thought Johnson got him with his hand.

"I saw it coming," Haula said. "I just chipped it out and I tried to get out of the way of the hit. He caught me with his hand, I think. That happens sometimes."

Captain Gabriel Landeskog came off the bench to yell at the ref, but instead he skated at Haula and got into it with him.

"He told me to stay down since I was hurt so bad," Haula said. "Emotions were running high. I took my time to get up. He hit me in the mouth."

Charlie Coyle scored 1:51 in. Jason Zucker scored a gigantic second-period goal after the Wild had a questionable Coyle goal waved off. The ref saw Niederreiter on top of Semyon Varlamov, but replays showed Jan Hejda pushed Niederreiter on the goalie. The play apparently isn't reviewable even though the league allows for a "broader discretion for the video war room in Toronto to assist referees in determining good hockey goals. The revised rule will allow the NHL to correct a broader array of situations where video review clearly establishes that a "goal" or "no goal" call on the ice has been made in error."

Clear as always, NHL.

The Johnson incident came after a Denver Post column Friday that wondered how on home ice the Avs would respond in Matt Cooke's first game there since his knee-on-knee hit last postseason injured defenseman Tyson Barrie.

"One day, it might be the opposite," Roy told the newspaper. "One of our players will hurt one of their guys. And I'm sure everybody is going to be very happy to remind (Minnesota) what happened to Tyson Barrie."

In the same column, Johnson said the animosity the Avs have for the Wild is "like a volcano. It goes dormant. But it might wake back up again."

After Zach Parise scored into an empty net on his career-high-tying 10^th shot with 3 seconds left, Roy tried to put his fourth line on the ice for the closing faceoffs. Referee Tim Peel kicked them off, and he got accolades from the Wild players and Yeo afterward for his awareness there.

There were several other big performances. Defense partners Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon were terrific, with Spurgeon blocking nine shots and Scandella four. Ryan Suter was a horse in 28-plus minutes and had an assist. He said he felt like he only played 22 minutes and joked he planned to have a talk with the coaches.

Jonas Brodin was awesome again and was plus-2. Fourteen Wild players were plus-1 or better.