Colorado Avalanche (5-0-3) @ Boston Bruins (3-6-0)
1 p.m. MT | TD Garden | Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, NHL Network | Listen: Altitude Sports Radio (92.5 FM)
The Avalanche heads east for a two-game road trip starting with an afternoon clash with the Boston Bruins. This is the second and final meeting between the teams this season, as the Avalanche won 4-1 a week ago in Denver.
Latest Result (COL): CAR 5, COL 4 (SO)
Latest Result (BOS): ANA 7, BOS 5
Fought for A Point
After entering the first intermission trailing 4-1, the Avalanche erased the three-goal deficit to force a shootout in a 5-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at Ball Arena on Thursday. Valeri Nichushkin scored his third and fourth goals of the season while Parker Kelly and Martin Necas added tallies for Colorado. In relief for the Avs, Trent Miner stopped all 20 shots he faced. Carolina’s Eric Robinson opened the scoring at 3:07 of the first period with a left-circle shot. Nichushkin tied the game 57 seconds later at 4:04 with a top-shelf backhand shot from the doorstep after a drive to the net. The Hurricanes took a 4-1 lead after a shorthanded tally from Seth Jarvis at 7:17 and goals from Sebastian Aho at 12:41 and Logan Stankoven at 13:40. The Avs scored the lone second-period goal when Kelly tallied his first of the season via a redirection on Sam Malinski’s shot from the top of the right circle at 4:46. Cutting the Avs’ deficit to one, Necas scored his sixth goal of the season at 4:45 of the third period via his second tally from a sharp angle just above the right goal line in as many games. At 14:09 of the third period, Nichushkin tied the game with a power-play goal via a shot from the doorstep. In the shootout, Jarvis scored the game-winning goal in the first round.
The Mile High City’s Scorers
Nate the Great
Nathan MacKinnon is tied for sixth in the league in goals (6).
All Hail Cale
Among NHL defensemen, Cale Makar is first in points (9), tied for first in goals (3) and tied for third in assists (6).
Marty Party
Necas is tied for sixth in the NHL in goals (6) and points (12).
Series History
In 45 previous regular-season games against the Bruins, the Avalanche has a record of 27-16-2.
No Shortage of Offense at North Station
The Bruins lost 7-5 to the Anaheim Ducks at TD Garden on Thursday. In the first period, Boston’s Casey Mittelstadt opened the scoring at 2:10 before Anaheim’s Drew Helleson tied the game at 8:06. Morgan Geekie gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 8:49 of the second period before Cutter Gauthier tied the game at 11:29 of the middle frame. At 15:24 of the second period, Jacob Trouba gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead. Less than two minutes later, at 17:10 of the middle frame, Mason Lohrei tied the game for the Bruins with a power-play goal. In the third period, Mikael Granlund scored a power-play goal at 2:52 to give Anaheim a 4-3 lead and Sam Colangelo made it 5-3 with a tally at 7:49. The Bruins would tie the game after a power-play goal from David Pastrnak at 14:32 and a tally from Geekie again at 14:57. The Ducks took the lead 30 seconds later at 15:27 when Troy Terry scored and doubled their advantage via a Granlund empty-net tally at 17:52.
Scoring Against the Spoked B
MacKinnon has posted 18 points (8g/10a) in 22 games against Boston, including two goals in their matchup earlier this season.
In 11 contests against the Bruins, Makar has registered nine points (2g/7a).
Gabriel Landeskog has registered 11 points (5g/6a) in 17 games against Boston.
Making Their Mark in Massachusetts
Pastrnak leads the Bruins in points (12) and is tied for the team lead in goals (5) and assists (7).
Pavel Zacha is tied for the team lead in assists (7) and is second in points (9).
Geekie is tied for the team lead in goals (5) and tied for third in points (7).
A Numbers Game
499
Necas’ tally on Thursday was the 499th goal scored by an Avalanche player from Czechia since the franchise moved to Denver.
87%
The Avalanche has the eighth best penalty-kill in the league at 87%.
52.5%
Colorado has won 52.5% of its faceoffs, which is the ninth best in the NHL.
Quote That Left a Mark
"We have a good team, no doubt about it. We just have to find a way to, I know Bedsy’s (Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar) talked about it before, but the 60-minute effort is what you want to try to perfect early on and as often as you can throughout the season. I want to make sure we don’t have any lapses. Tonight, obviously we had a little bit of a lapse in the first period, and we were able to bounce back from that, which is important. We obviously would have liked the first period to look a little different.”
-- Avalanche Captain Gabriel Landeskog on Thursday’s comeback effort against Carolina
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