The Colorado Avalanche ripped off five unanswered goals in the second period to top the Calgary Flames, 6-2, in the first game of a four-game road trip on Tuesday.
Here are ten observations from the win:
Justus Annunen won his third straight game. The 23-year-old allowed two goals on the first three shots of the game but settled down. Annunen turned aside 25 of 27 overall, including Jonathan Huberdeau’s breakway after exiting the penalty box.
Mikko Rantanen snapped a five-game skid without a goal. The Finnish forward posted a huge game for the Avalanche, recording two goals and two assists. Rantanen now has five games this season in which he has posted four-plus points.
Added, Rantanen extended his career-long assist streak to ten games, tied for the third-longest assist streak in franchise history. It’s the longest active run in the NHL and tied for the fourth-longest streak this season.
Valeri Nichushkin has wasted no time making an impact since his return to the lineup. He assisted on Rantanen’s first goal on the Avalanche’s first power play of the night. Nichushkin notched his 24th goal of the season in that big second period. He finished with three points (1-2-3) and a +3 on Tuesday.
Nathan MacKinnon established a new career high in points in a season with 112. The Hart Trophy front-runner recorded a secondary assist on Rantanen’s first goal and sniped a goal from below the left dot in the second period. Perhaps more importantly, MacKinnon logged a season-low 17:57 TOI, underscoring just how deep this new-look Avalanche team is.
Speaking of, Casey Mittelstadt recorded his first goal as a member of the Colorado Avalanche in that five-goal second period. Brandon Duhaime set up the play with a beautiful hook-and-ladder type pass to his teammate.
The new guys were all over the scoresheet on Tuesday, including defenseman Sean Walker. The Avalanche blueliner led the team with eight shots on goal, including five in the first period. Walker tallied an assist on Josh Manson‘s goal that evened the score early in the second period. With the marker, Manson has tied his career high of seven goals, previously set in 2017-18 when he was with the Anaheim Ducks.
While no points resulted from it, Yakov Trenin ‘s hard work in front to screen Calgary Flames netminder Dan Vladar aided in Manson’s goal. The Russian forward logged 15:22 TOI and one shot on goal.
With the 6-2 win, the Avalanche have won four straight games. During that stretch, Colorado has outscored their opponents 20-5. An even more wild stat: the Avalanche are 10-2-0 on Tuesdays. Motion to play games only on Tuesdays?
With the Jets idle on Tuesday, the Avalanche have pulled into a tie with Winnipeg for second place in the Central Division. Colorado is now just two points back of first-place Dallas with a game in hand.
(Featured Image Credit: Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports)
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