Avs Open NHL Season With 4-2 Loss to Wild

Dany Heatley had two power-play goals on assists from new teammate Zach Parise, and the offense-enhanced Minnesota Wild surged into their much-anticipated season with a 4-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

Mikael Granlund also scored for the Wild in his first NHL appearance, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard had a late goal in his first game in more than a year to help make the amped-up crowd of 19,298 forget all about the 119-day lockout that delayed the opener by 3 months.

John Mitchell scored early in his debut for the Avalanche and Cody McLeod cut the lead to one with 14:51 remaining in the game, but they were done in during a penalty-ridden second period that had goalie Semyon Varmalov on his heels.

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