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Get your game notes: Wild at Avalanche

Jonnas Brodin, Nathan MacKinnon

Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon, right, and Minnesota Wild’s Jonas Brodin, of Sweden, gets tangled up along the boards in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

AP

Tonight on CNBC, it’s the Colorado Avalanche hosting the Minnesota Wild starting at 9:30 p.m. ET. Following are some game notes, as compiled by the NHL on NBC research team:

• First-year head coach Patrick Roy led the Avalanche to their first postseason berth since the 2009-10 season, when they lost in the first round to the eventual champion Chicago Blackhawks. They will be meeting the Wild in the playoffs for the third time (each club won once in the Western Conference Quarterfinals – Minnesota in 2003, Colorado in 2008). The 19-year NHL career of Roy – the all-time postseason leader in wins (151) and losses (94) – ended with a Game 7 OT loss to the Wild in 2003.

• The Avalanche jumped from 29th in the NHL standings (39 pts., .406 points %) in 2012-13 to third overall (112 pts., .683) in 2013-14, becoming the first club since the league expanded to 21 teams in 1979 to go from the bottom three to top three in a single season. The Avs matched a franchise record with 52 wins, established in 2000-01, when they won their second of two Stanley Cups (1995-96).

• Avs goaltender Semyon Varlamov set a franchise single-season record with an NHL-high 41 victories, surpassing coach Patrick Roy’s previous high of 40 set in 2000-01. Varlamov went from leading the league in losses (21 in 2012-13) to leading the league in wins in one season. Tonight, he will be making his Colorado postseason debut. He posted a 10-9 record with Washington in 2008-09 and 2009-10.

• This season, Minnesota center Mikko Koivu became the franchise career leader in points (451). Over his nine-year NHL career, the Wild captain has 19 goals and 43 points vs. Colorado (regular season and postseason), both personal highs vs. any team. In the 2008 Western Conference series vs. the Avs, he scored a goal in each of the first four games. Since then, however, he has gone without a point in his last seven playoff games (two vs. Colorado, both losses, and five last season vs. Chicago.)

• Avalanche winger Nathan MacKinnon, who led all NHL rookies in goals (24, tied with Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson), assists (39) and points (63), is the prohibitive favorite to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s top rookie when awards are handed out at the Stanley Cup Final. The last time the team of the eventual Rookie of the Year won a round in that year’s playoffs was in the 1999-2000 season when Scott Gomez won the individual award and his New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup.

• Five different Wild goaltenders picked up wins this season: Josh Harding (18), Darcy Kuemper (12), Ilya Bryzgalov (7), Niklas Backstrom (5) and John Curry (1). The last time a playoff-bound team had five goalies with at least one win during the regular season was the 2008-09 Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus was swept in four games in the first round by the eventual champion Detroit. Elias Sports Bureau

• The Wild’s season leader in goals (30) and points (60), Jason Pominville became only the third player in franchise history to reach the 30-goal mark, joining Marian Gaborik (five times) and Brian Rolston (three). The Wild were 15-8-4 when Pominville scored a goal this season, but only 6-6-0 on the road.

• Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson, the first overall pick in the 2006 NHL Draft, will be making his NHL postseason debut tonight. Johnson, who had 39 points (nine goals, 30 assists) in his sixth season, entered the playoffs with 409 regular-season games under his belt, the second-most among all players appearing in their first playoff games this season (Blake Comeau, Columbus – 423 games).