Alexandar Georgiev made 41 saves and Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

Andrew Cogliano and Denis Malgin also scored goals for Colorado, which moved two points ahead of the Wild in the battle for third place in the Central Division. Devon Toews added two assists.

Georgiev logged his 22nd victory of the season as the Avalanche improved to 9-2-2 over their past 13 games.

Joel Eriksson Ek scored a power-play goal and Kirill Kaprizov also found the net for Minnesota, which fell to 1-4-1 in the past six games. Mats Zuccarello had two assists while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 16 of 19 shots.

Colorado, playing the second game of a back-to-back set that began with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday in Denver, took a 1-0 lead at the 15:14 mark of the first period on Cogliano’s first goal in seven games.

The score came at the end of a three-on-one break on a wrist shot from the middle of the left circle that went under Fleury’s glove for Cogliano’s ninth goal of the season.

Malgin made it 2-0 early in the second period. He snapped a shot from above the left circle through the legs of Wild defenseman Jon Merrill and over Fleury’s right shoulder for his fourth goal of the season.

Minnesota cut it to 2-1 at 7:09 of the second period. Eriksson Ek, stationed in front of the crease, reached his stick out and deflected Zuccarello’s high shot from the left point under Georgiev’s blocker for his 21st goal of the season.

MacKinnon extended Colorado’s lead back to two goals at the 16:29 mark of the second. He blazed down the right wing past Wild defenseman Jake Middleton and snapped a shot from the bottom of the right circle through Fleury’s pads for his 18th goal of the season.

Kaprizov made it 3-2 with 5:53 left in the third period with a spinning backhand shot from the bottom of the left circle past Georgiev’s glove side for his 31st goal of the season.

Minnesota pulled Fleury for an extra attacker with two minutes to go, and Georgiev turned aside three shots, including another backhand try by Kaprizov.

–Field Level Media