Avs shoot for payback in Minnesota

(SportsNetwork.com) - The Colorado Avalanche saw an exciting 2013-14 campaign come to a disappointing end with a loss to the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the postseason.

The Avalanche will get a couple of shots at revenge as they begin a home-and- home set with the Wild on Thursday night at Minnesota's Xcel Energy Center.

The Avs came out of nowhere to win the Central Division last season, winning 14 of 16 games to start the season under rookie head coach Patrick Roy. Colorado ended up matching a franchise record with 52 wins and its 112 points were the second-highest in team history as the Avs snapped a three-year playoff drought and Roy won the Jack Adams Award.

The season did end on a sour note, with the Avalanche falling in seven games to the Wild in the first round. Minnesota won Game 7 on the road 5-4 in overtime, capping a series that featured Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie suffer a series-ending injury after taking a knee-to-knee hit from Minnesota's Matt Cooke.

Cooke was suspended for seven games as the Avs lost their top goal-scorer from the blue line and Minnesota climbed out of a 2-0 series deficit.

In addition to talented blueliners in Barrie and Erik Johnson, the Avs are loaded with young talent up front. Reigning Calder Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon -- the first overall pick of the 2013 draft -- posted 24 goals in 82 games and another 10 points in the first round.

He joins the likes of Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan O'Reilly, a trio of players all coming off career seasons.

With that kind of depth, the Avalanche allowed center Paul Stastny to exit via free agency, but did add a big locker room leader in veteran Jarome Iginla. The 37-year-old posted a 30-goal season with Boston in 2013-14 and was named an alternate captain to help lead the young Avs.

Semyon Varlamov will likely start tonight for the Avalanche and is 7-4-1 with a 2.13 goals against average and .929 save percentage in 12 regular-season meetings with the Wild. He is coming off a solid season, but did post a 2.78 GAA and .913 save percentage in the playoffs.

Colorado will host Minnesota on Saturday, then play another four in a row on the road.

The Wild open their season after losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games in the semifinals. Still, the win over Colorado gave Minnesota its first playoff series win since 2003.

Since signing forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter to matching 13- year deals on July 4, 2012, the Wild have made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons and have now added another scorer in Thomas Vanek.

The 30-year-old Austrian and former Minnesota Gopher signed a three-year deal on July 1 and his 277 goals rank eighth in the NHL since 2005-06. Vanek has scored at least 20 goals in each of his nine seasons.

Parise, meanwhile, totaled 29 goals and 27 assists last season despite missing 14 games with a broken foot, then went off for 14 points in 13 playoff games, while Suter earned his paycheck by leading the NHL in ice time last season with an average of 29 minutes and 25 seconds per game. It marked the highest by a skater since Chris Pronger's 29:28 in 2001-02.

Darcy Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom battled in training camp for the No. 1 spot in net and it will be Kuemper getting the call tonight. He went 12-8-4 with a 2.43 GAA and .915 save percentage in 26 games last season.

In his lone regular season meeting with the Avalanche, Kuemper gave up four goals on 23 shots and was lifted after 36 minutes of a Jan. 30 encounter in Colorado. He did not get a decision in the Avs' 5-4 win.

Kuemper played six games versus the Avs in the playoffs before suffering injury.

Minnesota, which begins a three-game road trip on Saturday in Colorado, has never lost in regulation in a home opener. The Wild won 11 in a row after tying Philadelphia in its first ever home opener on Oct. 11, 2000, but lost a shootout to the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 3, 2013.

The Avalanche went 4-0-1 in the 2013-14 regular-season series.