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Burns propels Wild past Avalanche

Mar 18, 2008 - 2:59 AM By Mike Weimerskirch PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) - The Minnesota Wild rest atop the Northwest Division with a two-point cushion, at least for one night.

Defenseman Brent Burns had a goal and an assist and Branko Radivojevic added his second game-winning goal of the season as the Wild skated to a 3-1 triumph over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.

Stephane Veilleux added an empty-net goal with 6.4 seconds left for Minnesota (39-26-8), which moved past Colorado (39-29-6) and idle Calgary (37-25-10).

"These last nine games are all going to be playoff style games," said Brian Rolston, who assisted on Burns' goal. "This gets us prepared for the big show."

Burns opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 8:54 into the first period. The blue-liner recorded his 14th goal of the season after accepting a feed from Rolston and firing a low wrist shot inside the left post from the slot.

"I've been getting some lucky bounces and the forwards are making great plays," Burns said. "(Todd Fedoruk) screened the goalie, he didn't even see it."

Joe Sakic leveled the contest just under five minutes into the second period on nearly an identical goal. Defenseman John-Michael Liles fed Sakic from behind the net, and the captain fired a wrist shot from the high slot, beating goaltender Niklas Backstrom on the stick side.

"We got one power-play goal, but obviously, we would have liked to have had more," said Sakic, who notched his 15th goal in 39 career games against the Wild.

Radivojevic shook off an injury to net the eventual game-winning goal at 9:42 of the second period, deflecting a shot from the point over goaltender Jose Theodore's left shoulder.

"Branko could have had two goals before," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. "I think he was surprised to get the puck there."

Radivojevic went down late in the first period after taking a hit from Peter Forsberg along the boards. Radivojevic remained on the ice holding his head for over a minute before skating to the bench.

Mikko Koivu had the second assist on the Radivojevic goal, extending his point streak to four games.

"Give credit to Mikko," Lemaire said. "His line has been playing well."

Backstrom shut down the Avalanche in the third period, finishing 29 saves to net his fourth victory over Colorado in five games this season.

"It is good for our confidence to see that we can play against these guys," Backstrom said.

"I thought Backstrom played well for them tonight," Sakic said. "He made the big saves at the end, he got them the win."

Colorado had one final chance when Forsberg drew a hooking minor against Pierre-Marc Bouchard with six minutes remaining, but Backstrom was able to handle all five shots the Avalanche put on net during the power play.

"Our power play was better tonight," Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville said. "We didn't have many breaks around the net tonight. With the quality and quantity of chances, generally some more of those are going to go in."