DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche are both deep and dynamic, and that unusual combination has the Minnesota Wild searching for answers to their opponent's offensive onslaught.
“It’s one game at a time," Wild forward Matt Boldy said after the Avalanche's 5-2 win Tuesday night put Minnesota in a 2-0 hole in this second-round series. "It’s coming into the next game ready to go. Make our adjustments and be better. You don’t win a series with two wins. That’s our mind-set. You go in, we’re going to make adjustments.”
Not much has worked for the Wild so far as the Avalanche have pummeled both of their goaltenders, Jesper Wallstedt for eight goals in a 9-6 Game 1 and Filip Gustavsson for four more in Colorado's Game 2 dominance.
The Avalanche's 14 goals are the most in the first two games of a playoff series since the Calgary Flames scored 15 against the Los Angeles Kings in 1988.
Twelve Colorado players have scored so far, an NHL record for the first two games of a series, and 10 Avalanche players have multiple points in the series that resumes Saturday night in St. Paul.
“It’s great. I mean, right now, that’s what you need,” defenseman Cale Makar said. “You need everybody contributing and we’re finding ways to do that. There’s a lot of jelling minds right now.”
Colorado coach Jared Bednar was asked if he realized he had this much firepower and depth.
“I was hoping we did," Bednar said. "We’re getting it now, right, and it doesn’t mean we’re always going to get the depth scoring. But I think all of our lines and players are capable of producing. Players are going to go through hot streaks, cold streaks, but I also feel like playoff time when everything’s on the line, that could drag the best out of your group at times, and sometimes it can drag the worst out in your group.
“So it’s a consistency thing for me, but it’s all up in between the ears for me.”
After sweeping the Los Angeles Kings, who slowed things down and turned the high-flying Avs into defensive-minded stalwarts, Colorado has flashed its goal-scoring prowess against the Wild.
Scott Wedgewood set the tone for the rebound after allowing a half dozen goals in Game 1. He made 29 saves Tuesday as he improved to 6-0 in his inaugural playoff run as a starter.
“Means we’re winning hockey games,” Wedgewood said. “I think, statistically, like I said, if we win 9-6, as long as we win, that’s all that matters this time of the year. It’s not always going to be pretty, like the other night, but just keep winning games, putting pucks on our board and go after the main thing.”
Great goaltending. Prolific scoring. Speed. Finesse. Physicality. It's all working for Colorado.
“They’re a great team,” Boldy said. “They play super-fast, super-dynamic. Obviously they have some incredible players. The biggest thing is just staying above them and not giving them those odd-man rushes because obviously their pretty special players make special plays.”
Especially Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog and forward Nathan MacKinnon.
Landeskog is looking like his old, pre-injury self of 2022 before a right knee injury robbed him of three seasons. He had a goal and and assist in Game 2. MacKinnon scored a goal and assisted on two others Tuesday.
MacKinnon joined some exclusive company with his third straight three-point playoff game. The only players to accomplish that feat over the last 40 years are Mikko Rantanen (2025), Leon Draisaitl (2022), Joe Pavelski (2010), Joe Sakic (1997) and Dennis Maruk (1986), according to NHL Stats.
“Just excited to play playoff hockey,” said MacKinnon, whose team has scored five or more goals in three straight postseason games for the fifth time in franchise history. “Obviously, the best time of year.”
Landeskog knows that feeling.
What brings out the best in him this time of year? That's easy.
“It's playoff hockey. It's what you play for,” Landeskog said. “It's what you think about through the dog days of the season. It's what you think about when you're training in the offseason. This is what it comes down to, so I think it's about just leaving it all out there, really."
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns, right, avoids a check from Minnesota Wild left wing Marcus Foligno in the second period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Minnesota Wild left wing Kirill Kaprizov, left, gets called for a high stick penalty as Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar reacts in the third period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson stops a shot in the third period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared Wednesday before a House committee investigating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, trying to explain to lawmakers his contact with the financier after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
The Cabinet member was the latest powerful political figure to appear before the House Oversight Committee. He has previously given contradictory statements about his relationship with Epstein, but he said he has done nothing wrong and welcomed the closed-door interview with lawmakers.
The transcribed interview is a test of how much scrutiny lawmakers will apply to powerful men who kept company with Epstein even after his conviction. Trump's administration has tried unsuccessfully for more than a year to move past the issue.
Lawmakers emerged from the private interview with vastly different assessments of Lutnick's answers. The committee chairman, GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, said Lutnick had been “forthcoming” in describing limited interactions with Epstein. Democrats accused Lutnick of lying and evading their questions.
Lutnick is the highest-ranked administration official, besides President Donald Trump, to be named in the Epstein case files. The Republican president has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has said he ended their relationship years ago. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Several Democrats have called for Lutnick to resign. A few Republicans, including Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, have said he should at least testify before the committee.
“He was evasive, nervous. He was dishonest,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va. “He would not admit to lying, which he clearly did.”
Lutnick has played down his ties to Epstein, who was once his neighbor in New York City. Under questioning from Democrats during an unrelated hearing earlier this year, Lutnick described their contact as a handful of emails and a pair of meetings in 2011 and 2012.
But that admission came after Lutnick had previously claimed on a podcast last year that he had decided to “never be in the room” with Epstein after a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home, which included a massage table, disturbed Lutnick and his wife.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state sex offense charges in Florida, including soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
“I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with him,” Lutnick told senators in February when he was asked about Epstein during a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
But Lutnick, who was previously the head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, actually had an hourlong engagement at Epstein’s home in 2011. His family then visited Epstein’s private island in 2012 for lunch.
Committee Democrats asked Lutnick repeatedly about that visit, but came away from the interview frustrated with Lutnick and accused him of evading their questions. They said Lutnick said he remembered little about the island visit and did not see anything that raised concern.
During a break in the interview, Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., said Lutnick “claims that when he said, ‘I would never be in a room again with Jeffrey Epstein,’ he meant only him and Jeffrey Epstein.”
The federal release of case files on Epstein also showed that Epstein and Lutnick had kept in contact through email. Lutnick in 2018 emailed Epstein about a proposed expansion of a museum in their neighborhood that would have blocked the view from their homes. Epstein also gave $50,000 to a 2017 dinner honoring Lutnick, while Lutnick invited Epstein to a 2015 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. In 2013, they both invested in the same business venture.
“I haven't seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence, but he wasn't 100% truthful with whether or not he had been on the island,” Comer said. He added that the committee planned to later release the transcript of the interview and “let the American people judge whether the credibility was damaged or not.”
Democrats said Lutnick also backed away from his statement in an interview last year that Epstein was the “greatest blackmailer ever."
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said Lutnick told him that he was only “speculating” when Lutnick made the blackmail claim.
The interview was not recorded on video, as the committee has done with depositions for others, including former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state. Comer said the decision not to video the interview, for which Lutnick volunteered, was keeping with the committee's practice.
To Democrats, that decision allowed Lutnick to escape the same kind of scrutiny as others had.
“The level of the lies that are taking place inside that room without video is unbelievable and part of this egregious cover-up,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz.
Comer said Democrats were only trying to score political points. “This is a serious investigation,” he said.
The chairman argued it made the committee's inquiry easier when subjects consented to an interview, rather than resist congressional demands.
“Nobody wants to be videoed. If you come in, you work with us, then you know, you might not have to be videoed,” he said.
The White House has continued to express support for Lutnick, who is one of the biggest boosters of Trump's tariff strategy. He has been close to Trump for years and helped raise money for his 2020 and 2024 campaigns.
The committee is also scheduled to hear testimony on May 29 from Pam Bondi, who was pushed out as attorney general last month.
Follow the AP's coverage of Jeffrey Epstein at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arrives for a deposition as part of the House Oversight Committee's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., speaks to reporters before questioning Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as part of the panel's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., speaks to reporters before questioning Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as part of the panel's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arrives for a deposition as part of the House Oversight Committee's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arrives for a deposition as part of the House Oversight Committee's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, April 17, 2025, in Washington, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FIle)
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick delivers his budget estimates to the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies budget hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick delivers his budget estimates to the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies budget hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FILE - Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attends an event on health care affordability in the Oval Office at the White House, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
