(SportsNetwork.com) - The Minnesota Wild came out fast and furious in their season-opening win over the Colorado Avalanche and try to sweep the home-and- home set between the clubs on Saturday evening.
Skating in front of their home crowd, the Wild scored four times in the second period on the way to a 5-0 victory on Thursday. Zach Parise had a goal and two assists while Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves for his third career shutout.
Ryan Suter and Jason Pominville added a goal and an assist, while Nino Niederreiter and Jared Spurgeon notched goals.
"We did a lot of the things that we set out to do," said Parise. "I think it was a combination of things along with that they didn't play very well and I think they would say that."
In a rematch of last season's first-round playoff series, won by the Wild in seven games, Minnesota recorded a club-record 48 shots on net and outshot Colorado 17-5 in the first period.
"We started the game the right way," said Wild coach Mike Yeo. "It's one thing to be ready for the drop of the puck, but you have to be ready for the things that follow that and I think we did a good job with that."
The contest did not see the Avalanche retaliate on Wild forward Matt Cooke, who injured Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie in Game 3 of the recent playoff series with a knee-to-knee hit.
Barrie missed the rest of the series and logged just over 21 minutes of action in his return on Thursday.
Semyon Varlamov was tagged for five goals on 38 shots in the loss, while Reto Berra made 10 third-period saves in relief. Jarome Iginla did not record a shot in his Avalanche debut.
"The second period they were putting shots on (Varlamov)," said Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog. "They came out hard and deserved to win. We're not going to hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves."
The Avalanche won four of five versus the Wild during the 2013-14 regular season and return to the road on Monday to begin a four-game swing.
Minnesota is set to play three straight on the road starting tonight.
