The Colorado Avalanche looked every bit like a team taking advantage of the schedule Saturday night, and they did it with the kind of firepower that has defined their best stretches this season. On two days’ rest against a Calgary Flames team on the second night of a back-to-back, Colorado rolled to a 5-2 win at home.
That result fit the script from the moment the schedule came out in mid-July, but the Avalanche have made a habit of turning even the “easy” ones into a little more work than expected lately. They had already stumbled in spots like Philadelphia, where they faced a Flyers team with just one win in 10 games, and they were steamrolled by Nashville last Sunday on the second night of a back-to-back.
This time was different. This time looked like vintage Avalanche hockey.
The top of the lineup drove everything. Artturi Lehkonen scored twice and kept his blistering start rolling.
Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Brock Nelson also scored, with MacKinnon and Necas each adding an assist. Cale Makar piled up four assists, and Devon Toews chipped in two more.
Mackenzie Blackwood was steady again in net, making 25 saves to improve to 7-3-0 overall. It was his 10th start in 14 games to open the season, and he’s now 5-1-0 in his last six. His save percentage climbed to .897, and he’s allowed 14 goals over that six-game stretch.
“The effort was really good. I think intentions were right, played the right way, top line was really good,” Bednar said.
“I think we didn’t give up a lot of scoring chances, but the ones we did were big ones and some of those are onus, like the turnovers. They made a couple plays too, beat us to the net a couple times.
“I thought Blackwood was exceptional, made big saves when we needed him.”
MacKinnon opened the scoring with a top-shelf one-timer past rookie goalie Arsenii Sergeev for his ninth goal of the season. Necas followed early in the second period with a rare power-play goal from the top unit, burying a one-timer from close range off a feed from Nazem Kadri with 18 seconds left on the man advantage. That was Necas’ seventh goal, and it extended his point streak to seven points in his last four games.
Just over three minutes later, the Avalanche completed the top-line trifecta. Makar found Lehkonen, who snapped a wrist shot past Sergeev for Colorado’s third goal. Lehkonen later added his second of the night in the third period.
His 12 goals are tied for second in the NHL, alongside Leon Draisaitl, with only Kirill Kaprizov ahead of him at 14. Auston Matthews and Kyle Connor each have 11. That’s the kind of company Lehkonen is keeping right now.
“He’s got a good shot. He’s smart, gets to the the dirty areas,” Blackwood said of Lehkonen.
“He knows where to go, and he’s getting rewarded. He plays with some talented players to get him the puck.
But credit to him, he knows where to go.”
Nelson got in on the scoring before the second period was halfway done, redirecting a puck out of mid-air for his fourth goal of the season. The play started as a broken two-on-one with Gabe Landeskog, but Nelson still found a way to finish it.
Calgary got one back late in the second through Joel Farabee and added another early in the third from Martin Pospisil, but the Avalanche had already done the damage.
At home, Colorado has been a machine. Before the New Jersey game, the Avalanche were already averaging exactly five goals per game through their first six games at Ball Arena. They put up five against the Devils, then matched it again against the Flames.
That leaves them with 40 goals in eight home games.
The challenge, as Bednar made clear, is carrying that kind of production away from Ball Arena.
“I want to see it on the road. Like we’ve been really good at home.
Well, I don’t know, depends what you classify as good. I think we’ve been really good at home for this time of the year,” Bednar said.
“But you know, since early in the year, a recent pass on the road hasn’t been great.”
For Calgary, the night was made tougher by the absence of Devin Cooley, who had been their biggest bright spot during a 6-2-0 run over the last eight games before getting hurt earlier in the week. That left Sergeev in a brutal spot: one career start coming in, against a Colorado team that scores at a ridiculous clip at home and was playing with fresh legs.
He stopped 28 shots and kept the game from getting completely out of hand, but the Flames were still left to absorb the full force of Colorado’s big guns.
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