Grubauer makes 27 saves, Avalanche beat Wild

DENVER (AP) — Philipp Grubauer stopped 27 shots to lead the short-handed Colorado Avalanche to a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.

Logan O’Connor and Valeri Nichushkin scored, and Cale Makar had an assist for the Avalanche, who have earned five of a possible six points in the third of four straight games against the Wild.

Kirill Kaprizov scored and Cam Talbot had 29 saves for Minnesota.

Colorado leading scorer and first-line center Nathan MacKinnon is out with a lower-body injury that will keep him sidelined week-to-week, the team said earlier Tuesday. MacKinnon was hurt Sunday against the Wild and it adds to an already long list of players who have been injured.

Matt Calvert (upper body), Erik Johnson (upper body), Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (lower left leg), Devon Toews (foot) and Pavel Francouz (lower body) are also out. Calvert and Francouz have been placed on injured reserve.

The Wild are without defenseman Matt Dumba, who was placed on injured reserve on Sunday. They played the third period with just five defensemen when Jared Spurgeon didn’t return after the second intermission.

Colorado grabbed the lead late in the first period on O’Connor’s second goal of the season at 17:45. Nichushkin made it 2-0 in the second period when he buried a rebound at 7:09 for his second of the season.

The Wild got one back on the power play when Kaprizov scored off a pass from Zach Parise at 13:05 of the second period. It was his third of the season.

Minnesota had several chances in the final minute after Talbot went off for an extra skater. Grubauer stopped a couple of shots and then the Avalanche were able to run out the clock in the Wild end.

UP NEXT

The teams complete a four-game, home-and-home set Thursday night in Denver.

___

More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports