By The Associated Press

DENVER - Colorado's Eric Messier had the first two-goal game of his career Sunday night, helping the Avalanche to a 3-3 tie with the Minnesota Wild.

Trailing 3-1 in the third period, Minnesota scored two goals 3:15 apart. Pascal Dupuis beat Patrick Roy on a breakaway at 11:35. Antti Laaksonen scored on a rebound of Willie Mitchell's shot from the slot at 14:50.

Colorado outshot the Wild 45-16, including 5-1 in overtime, but failed to gain ground on Minnesota, the Northwest Division leader. The Wild have an NHL-high 14 points to Colorado's 10. The Avalanche remained winless at home in four games, going 0-1-3.

Minnesota goaltender Dwayne Roloson had 42 saves and Roy had 13.

Also scoring were rookie Stephane Veilleux of Minnesota and Jeff Shantz of Colorado.

Blue Jackets 5, Kings 1

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Tyler Wright scored two of his three goals in the third period to power Columbus.

These were Wright's first goals of the season. He completed his hat trick - the second of his career - with 28.1 seconds left. It was the fifth hat trick in Blue Jackets history.

Geoff Sanderson and Hannes Hyvonen each added a goal and an assist for Columbus. Adam Deadmarsh scored for the Kings with just more than 11 minutes to play.

Blue Jackets goaltender Marc Denis had 24 saves, handing the Kings their first road loss of the season.

Blackhawks 3, Sharks 2

CHICAGO - Sergei Berezin scored twice on first-period power plays and Jocelyn Thibault stopped 34 shots to pace Chicago.

San Jose goaltender Evgeni Nabokov made 18 saves in his first game since he ended a holdout last Tuesday by signing a two-year contract.

Tyler Arnason finished with a goal and an assist, and Alex Zhamnov had two assists for the Blackhawks, who snapped a three-game winless streak (0-2-1). Chicago was 3-for-8 on the power play.

Mike Ricci and Vincent Damphousse scored for the Sharks, who had won their previous two games.