Avalanche Earn First Shutout Win of Season with 4-0 Victory over Caps

Finding ways to win.
The Colorado Avalanche the Washington Capitals on Saturday night at Capital One Arena as the Avalanche continued their three-game road trip. The Avalanche are now 10-5-1 on the season.

For the Avalanche, Cale Makar scored on the power play, while Nathan MacKinnon (1G, 2A), Andrew Cogliano and Artturi Lehkonen (1G, 1A) scored at even strength.
Alexandar Georgiev was superb as he returned in the net and executed a 32-save performance to earn his first shutout win with the club.
Former Avalanche netminder and member of the 2022 Stanley Cup winning team Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves on 29 shots in the shutout loss for the Capitals. The Avalanche also faced Nicolas Aube-Kubel - who was a member of the 2022 Stanley Cup roster as well - on Saturday. And following the game, the team presented Kuemper and Aube-Kubel with their 2022 Stanley Cup rings.

GAME SUMMARY:

Colorado executed a composed and structured performance as they took on a Capitals squad that was also banged up and missing some key players like; Tom Wilson, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Dmitry Orlov and Carl Hagelin all sidelined.
The Avalanche got off to a slow start against the Capitals as they struggled to generate shots on net early on and trailed shots 14-8 heading into the first intermission, but took a 1-0 lead. The group benefited from a huge stop by their goaltender as Georgiev denied a Marcus Johansson chance on the doorstep just over sit minutes into the game.
Shortly after that, the Avalanche received their first power play of the game at 6:38, but were unable to convert. Colorado capitalized on its next opportunity on the man advantage late in the frame after being awarded a 5-on-3 power play for 1:30.

Caps forward Garnet Hathaway first went to the box for tripping at 17:56 and was soon joined by Lars Eller at 18:30. As the Avalanche's top-ranked lethal power play went to work, Nathan MacKinnon snapped a cross-ice pass from one faceoff circle to the other to Makar. Positioned towards the net, Makar unleashed a blistering one timer below the top shelf of Washington's goal and over Kuemper's shoulder for the game's icebreaker at 19:39.
The second period featured more split action as both teams grinded for every inch of ice and only exchanged a total of 15 shots (eight for the Avalanche and seven for the Capitals). And while the frame featured tight-checking play, Colorado doubled its lead 2-0 heading into the final frame with an even-strength goal from MacKinnon and a strong 2-for-2 showing from the team's penalty kill in that frame.

At 13:14, MacKinnon grabbed a pass above the right faceoff circle and skated into the slot. He stickhandled past Aube-Kubel and stunned everyone in attendance as he finished off the sizzling play by chipping his shot over Kuemper's blocker.
The Avalanche continued their theme of capitalizing when it mattered in the final 20 minutes of play where they extended their lead 4-0 and received superb netminding from Georgiev.

The Avalanche found the back of the net at 8:57 on a nice forechecking play from the J.T. Compher, Cogliano, Logan O'Connor line that pressed to hem the Capitals in their own zone. In doing so, Compher chipped the puck free and sent a pass out to the point to Jacob MacDonald. The defenseman fired a one timer on net that Kuemper stopped, but the rebound went straight into the skate of Cogliano and across the goal line.
Lehkonen added a late strike as the Finnish winger extended his goal streak to three games. On a cycle play around the zone, MacKinnon played Mikko Rantanen who fed the pass across the slot out to the left faceoff circle - which deflected off Alex Ovechkin - where Lehkonen skated into the shot and beat Kuemper at 16:12.

NOTEWORTHY:

• Makar's power-play strike marked his fourth goal of the season and second on the power play. The 24-year-old is one point shy of becoming fastest defenseman to reach 200-career points where he currently sits at 52 goals and 147 assists in 194 games.
• MacKinnon tallied his fifth goal of the season and leads the Avalanche in scoring with 27 points (5G, 22A).
• Cogliano recorded his second goal of the season.
• With an assist on Makar's power-play goal, Artturi Lehkonen extended his point streak to six games where he's totaled as many points (3G, 3A) in that span.
• Georgiev made his 11th start of the season and improved his record to 8-2-1 as he recorded his first shutout with the Avalanche.
• Colorado finished the game 1-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
• Bowen Byram and Samuel Girard and Kurtis MacDermid (all with lower-body injuries) were scratches for Colorado.

NEXT GAME:

The Avalanche conclude their three-game road trip as they travel to Dallas to take on the Stars on Monday night. The puck drops between the Avs and Stars at 6:30 p.m. MT.