Rapid Recap: Avalanche 8, Blues 0

The Colorado Avalanche erupted with five power-play goals and goaltender Philipp Grubauer stopped all 21 shots he faced to defeat the St. Louis Blues 8-0 at Ball Arena on Friday.
Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog scored twice to increase his career total to 200 goals while Mikko Rantanen tallied his 100th career marker.
Nathan MacKinnon (one goal, two assists) and Cale Makar (three assists) each had three-point outings and six other Avs recorded multi-point games. Devon Toews scored his first goal as a member of the Avalanche and added a helper.
Grubauer's shutout was the 12th of his career, and he also added an assist in the victory.

Colorado's five man-advantage goals marked the first time that the Avalanche has scored five times while on the power play since Feb. 20, 2018 at the Vancouver Canucks.
Jordan Binnington started the game in net for St. Louis and allowed four goals on 24 shots before being replaced by Ville Husso in the third period.
The Avalanche and Blues meet again in St. Louis for two games on Feb. 6-7.

THE GOALS

1st Period
No Scoring
2nd Period
4:03 COL (1-0) - Gabriel Landeskog scored his first of the season after Nathan MacKinnon fed him the puck from beside the St. Louis net.
12:24 COL (2-0) - PPG, Andre Burakovsky skated the puck into the offensive zone and scored from the slot. Philipp Grubauer assisted on the play.
14:34 COL (3-0) - Gabriel Landeskog went five-hole to score his 200th career marker after Mikko Rantanen forced a turnover.
17:05 COL (4-0) - PPG, Mikko Rantanen one-timed a pass from Cale Makar to tally his 100th career goal.
3rd Period
1:13 COL (5-0) - PPG, The rebound from a Nathan MacKinnon shot found Nazem Kadri in the left circle, and he scored into an open part of the net.
11:29 COL (6-0) - PPG, Nathan MacKinnon scored his first goal of the season while on the power play.
12:01 COL (7-0) - Devon Toews shot from the top of the left circle was deflected by Joonas Donskoi, who scored his first of the season.
14:56 COL (8-0) - PPG, Devon Toews scored his first as a member of the Avalanche, Colorado's fifth power-play goal of the game.
Final: Avalanche - 8 | Blues - 0

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 5 for 6
St. Louis: 0 for 4

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Philipp Grubauer made his second start in net and stopped all 21 shots faced. He also picked up an assist.
St. Louis: Jordan Binnington allowed four goals on 24 shots. Ville Husso entered the game in the third period to make his NHL debut and stopped six shots.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog scored twice to increase his career total to 200 goals. He is the seventh player in franchise history and fourth in Avalanche history to reach 200. Landeskog is two tallies shy of tying Peter Forsberg (202) for third in the Avs record book for goals.
Drafted by the Avs with the second-overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, he joins Nikita Kucherov (221) as the only members from their draft class to reach 200 markers.

NOTEBOOK

Mikko Rantanen scored his 100th career goal to become the fifth player from the 2015 draft class to reach 100, joining Connor McDavid (165), Jack Eichel (137), Sebastian Aho (121) and Kyle Connor (106)… Rantanen is the 12th player to record 100 goals in an Avalanche sweater… Philipp Grubauer stopped all 21 shots he faced to record his 12th career shutout... Grubauer assisted on Andre Burakovsky's goal. He is the first Avalanche goaltender to pick up a point since Jonathan Bernier had an assist in 2017-18… Andre Burakovsky scored for the second game in a row… The Avalanche notched five power-play goals, the first time the team has tallied five times with the man advantage since Feb. 20, 2018 against Vancouver... Nathan MacKinnon (one goal, two assists) and Cale Makar (three assists) each recorded their first three-point outings of the campaign... Devon Toews scored his first goal as a member of the Avalanche.

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

Eyes on the puck.

ROSTER REPORT

The Avalanche used the same personnel as it did in the season opener on Wednesday but mixed up some of its forward combinations and defensive pairings. Gabriel Landeskog started the game on a trio with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, while Andre Burakovsky was on the right side of the Nazem Kadri-centered second line with Brandon Saad moving to the left wing. The defensive duo of Devon Toews and Cale Makar stayed together, but Ryan Graves was on a pairing with Samuel Girard while rookie Conor Timmins was coupled with Ian Cole.

INJURY UPDATE

Erik Johnson remains out per protocol after testing positive for COVID-19 but is expected to skate on Saturday. He will be joined on the ice by Bowen Byram, who concluded his league-mandated quarantine on Friday.

UP NEXT

Colorado heads to Southern California for four contests, beginning with a two-game set against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on start of the game
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donoskoi
17 Tyson Jost - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 11 Matt Calvert
Defensemen
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
27 Ryan Graves - 49 Samuel Girard
28 Ian Cole - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
39 Pavel Francouz