Minnesota Wild forward Brandon Duhaime received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding Dallas Stars defenseman Thomas Harley in the team's 8-3 loss on Sunday.

The incident occurred with 1:46 remaining in the second period.

Harley was bloodied on the play. He left the contest and didn't return in the third frame.

Jason Robertson scored twice on the extended power-play opportunity.

Duhaime hasn't received supplemental discipline in his career. The NHL Department of Player Safety opted not to suspend him in October 2021 after he was assessed a major penalty for cross-checking Colorado Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram.

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Colorado Avalanche goaltender Pavel Francouz won't play in the 2023-24 season due to a lower-body injury, the team announced Sunday.

Francouz underwent adductor surgery in the offseason and has not played a game since. The 33-year-old is in the final year of a contract with a $2-million cap hit.

The Czechia native played 16 games for the Avalanche last season, posting an 8-7-1 record with a .915 save percentage.

Across parts of four NHL seasons, all with Colorado, Francouz holds a 44-21-6 record and a career .919 SV% in 73 contests.

The Avalanche claimed Ivan Prosvetov off waivers from the Arizona Coyotes before the start of the campaign amid concerns over Francouz's health. The 24-year-old has appeared in four games with the Avalanche and has a .899 SV%.

Starter Alexandar Georgiev has struggled of late, allowing three or more goals in each of his last seven games. He has a .887 SV% in 11 appearances this season after impressing with a .919 SV% in 62 contests a year ago.

The Avalanche are second in the Pacific Division with an 8-5-0 record.

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Ex-Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings goaltender Roman Cechmanek has died at the age of 52, the Flyers confirmed Sunday.

Cechmanek played three seasons with the Flyers and one with the Kings. Philadelphia drafted him at age 29 in 2000 with the 171st overall pick. He made an instant impact in 2000-01, going 35-15-6 with a .921 save percentage and 10 shutouts in his first NHL campaign. Cechmanek finished fourth in Hart Trophy voting and second among Vezina Trophy ballots that season.

Two years before arriving in the NHL, he was a member of the Czech Republic squad that won gold at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Cechmanek served as Dominik Hasek's backup but didn't play a game in the tournament. Hasek won the Vezina in 2001 when Cechmanek finished as the runner-up.

However, Cechmanek made his mark in North America during his brief NHL tenure. In his second season with the Flyers, he equaled the save percentage he posted in his first campaign while going 24-13-6.

He authored a 33-15-10 record and a .925 save percentage with Philadelphia in 2002-03, sharing the William M. Jennings Trophy with teammate Robert Esche and New Jersey Devils netminder Martin Brodeur.

Cechmanek enjoyed further international success, helping his home country claim gold at the World Championships in 1999 and 2000. He started and finished his career in what is now Czechia, playing four seasons with Vsetin before heading to North America and spending his final four pro campaigns in his homeland, Germany, and Sweden.

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The Edmonton Oilers fired head coach Jay Woodcroft and assistant coach Dave Manson after starting the season 3-9-1, the club announced Sunday.

Kris Knoblauch is replacing Woodcroft in the lead role, and legendary former defenseman Paul Coffey will join Knoblauch as an assistant coach. Knoblauch was the bench boss for the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack and Connor McDavid's coach with the OHL's Erie Otters.

The Oilers entered Sunday sitting second-last in the NHL and lost to the 32nd-place San Jose Sharks on Thursday - the club's fourth consecutive defeat.

Edmonton defeated the Seattle Kraken 4-1 on Saturday night to snap the skid. The Oilers now sit 12 points behind third place in the Pacific Division and eight points back of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Woodcroft took over the Oilers' bench in February 2022 after the club dismissed Dave Tippett. Woodcroft guided the team to a 26-9-3 finish that season and advanced to the Western Conference Final, the furthest the club has gone in the McDavid era.

Edmonton racked up 109 points in 2022-23 before losing in the second round of the playoffs. The Oilers were a popular Stanley Cup pick this preseason after showing improved form under Woodcroft, but they haven't found their usual winning recipe.

The 2023-24 campaign was viewed as a particularly critical point of the Oilers' championship window, as McDavid and fellow superstar Leon Draisaitl are under contract for two and one more full seasons, respectively.

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Jared Bednar believes his Colorado Avalanche finished Saturday's 8-2 defeat to the St. Louis Blues with an unprecedented lackluster effort.

"(Our) third period was a joke," Bednar said postgame. "That was the worst period of hockey I've ever seen from our club."

He added: "The third period (was) unacceptable, unexplainable. That's why it's a blowout. We stopped playing. (It) looked like we couldn't make it past 10 feet in the third period, giving up odd-man rushes every five seconds. Every rush attack they had ended up in a scoring chance against (us).

"Not good enough. It's just guys quitting and not doing what they're supposed to be doing. Feeling sorry for themselves."

The Blues led 4-1 through 40 minutes and scored four straight in the final frame, including a pair in a span of 1:29 early in the period. St. Louis outshot Colorado 19-14 in the third while controlling 72.86% of the expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The Avalanche had 79.54% of the expected goals in the second period when they outshot the Blues 11-6. But Colorado failed to dig out of a 3-0 deficit, matching St. Louis' one goal in the middle stanza before the wheels fell off for the hosts in the third. Brayden Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich both produced hat tricks for the victors.

Bednar has coached the Avalanche since 2016-17. They went 22-56-4 in his first season, finishing with only 48 points in the standings - the worst total of the salary cap era.

Colorado fell to 8-5-0 with Saturday's loss. The Avalanche occupy second place in the Central Division in spite of goaltender Alexandar Georgiev's .887 save percentage and a team goal differential of zero that enters Sunday tied for 17th in the league. The club's power play ranks 22nd despite boasting the likes of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar.

The Avalanche will travel to face the Seattle Kraken on Monday night.

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