The Minnesota Wild evened their playoff series with the Colorado Avalanche Thursday night with a 2-1 win at Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild got off to a fast start when Jared Spurgeon scored his first career playoff goal at 3:47 of the opening period. Assists were credited to Zach Parise (5) and Mikael Granlund (1).

Minnesota outshot Colorado 14-3 in the opening period and were 0/1 on the power play.

The Wild made it a 2-0 game when Charlie Coyle slammed home a Jason Pominville shot that took an odd hop off of the glass and right to Coyle's tape in front of the net. The goal, coming on the power play at 12:55 of the second period, was Coyle's third of the playoffs.

The Avalanche answered back while Xcel Energy Center PA announcer Al Abrahms was still announcing Coyle's goal to the rowdy patrons at the X, scoring just :30 later. Ryan O'Reilly scored his second of the playoffs to make it a 2-1 game.

The Wild again heavily outshot Colorado in the second period, this time by an 11-4 margin.

The Avalanche managed just one shot through the first sixteen-plus minutes of the third period and finished with a total of five in the third for a full-game total of 12. The Wild finished with 32 shots on goal.

Minnesota killed off a penalty (and six-on-four time) with just over three minutes remaining to hang on for dear life and get the win.

The Wild and Avalanche will play game five in Colorado on Saturday night (8 PM, AM 1390).

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