Niklas Backstrom had 37 saves for his third shutout of the season and 25th of his NHL career, and Greg Zanon scored in the Minnesota Wild's 1-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.

Jean-Sebastian Giguere had 20 saves for Colorado, which has lost four straight and continued to struggle at home against Minnesota. The Wild are 10-1-2 in their last 13 visits to Denver. Backstrom is 9-1-2 in those games.

Zanon gave the Backstrom the only goal he needed on the Wild's first shot of the game. After an icing by Colorado, Kyle Brodziak won the faceoff to Dany Heatley, who slid the puck to Zanon. Zanon moved to the center of the zone before sending a shot through traffic that beat Giguere with 13:56 left in the first period. It was Zanon's second goal of the season.