Wild ride out twists and turns

DENVER - NHL folks have a tendency to talk about Joe Sakic, Colorado's long-serving center, with reverence. On Monday night, even the most ardent of Sakic fans had to utter criticism when he made a horrible play that allowed the Wild to escape on a 2-on-1 shorthanded break.

The Wild and the Avalanche were tied 1-1 at that moment, and Mikko Koivu had complained bitterly about a tripping penalty that put Colorado on this power play.

But now Pavol Demitra was carrying the puck on the left, Brian Rolston was breaking in from the right and Koivu was watching excitedly from the penalty box.

Demitra waited until the precise moment to get the puck to Rolston, and Rolston buried it past Colorado goalie Jose Theodore to give the Wild a 2-1 lead with 8 1/2 minutes left.

Again, the Wild had been scoreless for two periods and was trailing 1-0. Then, Koivu scored to tie it at 7:13, and now the visitors had the lead. They also had a 6-1 advantage in third-period goals in this series.

Colorado tried to get the tying goal in a traditional manner, and finally the Avs resorted to more desperate tactics.

The Avalanche was pressuring when the Wild's Aaron Voros gave a push to Andrew Brunette. As is his custom, Brunette was hanging around near the crease, and he used the momentum from the push to land on Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom.

As this was going on, the puck hopped to Sakic and he tied it with a backhander.

Early in the second, Voros had dived on top of Theodore and Stephane Veilleux had fired in the puck for what could have been a 1-1 tie ... if the referee really had a sense of humor.

Instead, Voros was called for goalie interference, which had him claiming later there was a double standard at work. Asked about his push on Brunette, Voros said:

"It seems like we had the call one way and they got it the other. That's the way it goes. Plus, we won, and that's all that matters."

The Sakic goal wound up sending the game to overtime at 2-2. Both games in St. Paul went to overtime at 2-2. The Avs won the first on a Sakic goal, and the Wild won the second when defenseman Keith Carney blasted in a shot off a Colorado skate.

This time, the Wild was able to start the overtime with 1:52 of power-play time.

"Starting on a power play is an advantage," Demitra said. "Even if you don't score, it gives you some jump to start the period. They had some chances in overtime, but I think we had that jump all through overtime."

The victory came when Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored a moment after Brian Rolston beat Colorado defenseman Jeff Finger to the puck to avoid an icing call against the Wild. Finger went left, figuring that was where the puck was headed, but it bounced to Rolston.

He found Bouchard and, on his second shot of the night, the little man went high to beat Theodore at 11:58. The Wild leads the series 2-1, and now Colorado, a team with some old legs on its stars, has to come back tonight and try to get even.

The Wild was a deserving winner, with 12 shots in 12 minutes, but it could have ended earlier if Theodore was not tremendous in overtime.

Backstrom had 44 saves -- a Wild playoff record -- but Theodore had the more difficult stops in overtime.

The first head-shaker for the Wild came five minutes in, when Marian Gaborik picked an opening from out front and fired. Theodore stopped it.

"That was a great save," Demitra said. "I thought that was the winner."

Soon thereafter, Bouchard had the puck down low on the right. Theodore was on that side of the net. Bouchard gave the puck to Demitra, wide open on the left. He released the shot instantly, but Theodore came sliding over to preserve the tie.

"I think he was cheating on that one," Demitra said. "I think he knew that Butchie was going to pass, not shoot, and he started in that direction a fraction earlier.

"I was surprised he was there, but, yeah, I think he was cheating."

Demitra was asked about the manner in which the Wild was skating hard and creating chances in the overtime.

"That was a good effort, especially when it's harder to breath here," he said.

How about going back-to-back tonight in this altitude?

"I'm usually better the second night," Demitra said. "I'm looking forward to it."

Presumably, everyone in the locker room had the same feeling, since the Wild was 10-4-2 in back-to-back games this season.

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and at 4:40 p.m. preusse@startribune.com