Mats Zuccarello scored the deciding goal and had two assists to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 4-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night in NHL preseason play in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Zuccarello, signed to five-year, $30 million free agent contract by the Wild on July 1, assisted on goals by Jason Zucker and Eric Staal in the second period. Matt Dumba also scored for Minnesota, and Devan Dubnyk had 30 saves.
Ty Lewis, Jayson Megna and Conor Timmins scored for Colorado, and Pavel Francouz stopped 22 shots.
The game was Wild captain Mikko Koivu’s first since last February, when he suffered a torn ACL in his right knee.