Key Save Sends Avs To Victory

It is not necessarily the number of saves a goaltender makes that can change the course of a game, but how the key saves change the momentum of the contest.
Colorado Avalanche netminder Jonathan Bernier made a remarkable save in the second period on Monday afternoon with the paddle of his stick to deny Ryan Kesler's wrist shot in a 1-0 game, and Nathan MacKinnon took the puck the other way to score the game-winning goal just 12 seconds later.

"I felt that he was always in the right spot, and he made some difficult saves look easy. He made at least that one spectacular save, which for me was the turning point in the game," head coach Jared Bednar said of Bernier. "Pretty evenly played game at that point; we had a good first, they had a good start to the second.
"We turned the puck over a few times in the second, and he makes that save and we go down to the other end and get a two-goal lead. It was a big turning point in the game and that's what you need out of your goaltender on a nightly basis, and he is certainly giving it to us right now."
The stop helped propel the Avalanche to a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at Pepsi Center and improve to 7-3-1 on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Bernier earned his sixth consecutive win, a career-long streak, and has a 1.27 goals-against average and a .962 save percentage during the stretch.
The goaltender stopped 33 shots in the contest, and his highlight-reel save on Kesler helped push the energy of the game into the Avs favor.

"[Jakob Silfverberg] made a good pass. To be honest, I didn't see [Kesler] backdoor there," said Bernier. "I thought I was covering everything on my left side. Just a desperate save and you know, I got lucky I guess."
MacKinnon used his speed and his linemates, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen, to quickly move toward the Anaheim net and score his 20th goal of the season.
"[MacKinnon] looked at me after the goal and he kind of laughed because he knew if I don't make that save, the game could have been a lot different," said Bernier. "It's nice to get rewarded. You make a good save and then you go on the other side and you score."
MacKinnon has now found the back of the net in three straight games, which matches a career-long goal streak for the 22-year-old center.
"[Bernier] was the main factor of why I scored," said MacKinnon. "I mean if he doesn't make that unbelieve save, we are [tied] instead of up by two. It was a great play by Bernie and obviously really thankful for it."

Colorado extended its current win streak to seven games, its longest since winning eight consecutive contests from Dec. 31, 2005 to Jan. 17, 2006. The Avalanche has outscored its opponents 29-10 in the seven outings.
"This last stretch, we have just carried a lot of momentum, it's almost like a sixth man out there," said forward Matt Nieto. "When you are playing with confidence, everyone is playing together, it makes it easy for us as guys and players out there to get the job done."
Colorado has won six consecutive home games, the team's longest home stretch since Nov. 30 to Dec. 23, 2011 when it won eight straight contests on home ice.
"Obviously, we are not feeling complacent at all. We're hungry," said MacKinnon. "We were tied with them coming into [today], we didn't want to make it a three-point game. We knew we were up 3-1 going into the third period and did a great job. It was a solid 60 minutes. Obviously, it wasn't perfect, but good enough to win."
The Avs will look to continue their success on Thursday when they host the San Jose Sharks, a team who is one point ahead of them in the Western Conference standings.

SPECIAL TEAMS REMAIN STRONG

Colorado finished 1-for-6 on the power play and is now 27-for-96 (28.1 percent) with the man advantage in the Mile High City this season, the fourth-best home power play in the NHL.
Colin Wilson drew a penalty at the end of the second period and made the Ducks pay when he scored his first power-play goal of the season.
"The power play, I liked it early and then we kind of got away from it a little bit, but that unit came out there and did some good things," Bednar said. "A real nice pass by Kerf right away on the entry play to get us in there and then Wilson finds a spot and gets it on and off his tape, and it ends up being a big power-play goal for us."
The Avs were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and are now 131-for-155 (84.5 percent) on the kill this season, second in the league.
Colorado's penalty-kill unit is the NHL's best on home ice, where it's now 70-for-76 (92.1 percent). The Avalanche has extinguished 48 of its last 50 short-handed situations (96.0 percent).

NIETO HITS 300

Forward Matt Nieto skated in his 300th career NHL contest and scored his eighth goal of the season in the first period.
The Long Beach, California, native has registered 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in 36 games this season.
"It's awesome. I am fortunate to have played for two good organizations and make it this far," Nieto said after the game. "It is just a matter of keep working hard and keep going."
He has registered 96 points (43 goals, 53 assists) throughout his career and has skated in 79 contests with the Avalanche after playing his first 221 games with San Jose.

STRINGING POINTS TOGETHER

MacKinnon's second period tally extended his current point streak to seven games. He has scored five goals and registered nine assists in that stretch, the second longest of his career.
The Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, native recorded a point in 13 consecutive games during his rookie season (Jan. 25 - Mar. 6, 2014). He now has 54 points (20 goals, 34 assists) in 43 games this campaign, ranking him tied for second in the league in scoring.
Rookie forward Alex Kerfoot extended his point streak to three games (one goal, four assists) and is now tied for fifth among NHL rookies with 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists).
Kerfoot's assist on Colin Wilson's second-period tally came on the power play and gives him 11 helpers on the man advantage this season, second among first-year players.