{"id":668426,"date":"2026-05-14T07:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T07:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/668426\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T07:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T07:20:08","slug":"brett-kulak-scores-ot-winner-as-colorado-avalanche-eliminate-minnesota-wild-to-advance-to-western-conference-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/668426\/","title":{"rendered":"Brett Kulak scores OT winner as Colorado Avalanche eliminate Minnesota Wild to advance to Western Conference Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER (AP) \u2014 Brett Kulak<\/a> scored 3:52 into overtime after Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> tied it late in regulation and the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> advanced to the Western Conference final with a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild<\/a> in Game 5 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Kulak capped a wild comeback for the Avalanche, who trailed 3-0 midway through the second period. Colorado moves on to the conference final for an eighth time since relocating to Denver in 1995-96.<\/p>\n

The Avalanche will face the winner between the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> and Anaheim Ducks<\/a>. Vegas leads that series 3-2.<\/p>\n

With Minnesota up 3-1, Jack Drury<\/a> scored with 3:33 remaining. which set the stage for MacKinnon\u2019s goal scored with 1:23 left and Colorado\u2019s goal empty. <\/p>\n

MacKinnon whipped a shot from the left side past Jesper Wallstedt<\/a> and into a small space in the top left corner.<\/p>\n

In overtime, Martin Necas<\/a> took the puck, glided behind the net and back out front, where he found an open Kulak.<\/p>\n

It was a rare series-ending win at home for Colorado. The last time Colorado won a series on home ice was 2008 against the Wild, when the Avalanche featured Hall of Famers Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg.<\/p>\n

Marcus Johansson<\/a> scored 34 seconds into the game and Nick Foligno<\/a> added two goals to give the Wild a 3-0 after the first period. <\/p>\n

That led Colorado to take out Mackenzie Blackwood<\/a> after the first and insert Scott Wedgewood<\/a>, who made seven saves.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/p>\n

Pat Graham, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 Brett Kulak scored 3:52 into overtime after Nathan MacKinnon tied it late in regulation and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,80742,79561,448,82],"class_list":["post-668426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-colorado-avalanche-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-21","tag-minnesota-wild-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-30","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}