Avalanche Use Three-Goal Third Period to Defeat Penguins 4-1

Two Points Against Pittsburgh

Artturi Lehkonen scored twice and Scott Wedgewood made 32 saves in the Avalanche's 4-1 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Ball Arena on Tuesday. Casey Mittelstadt scored the game-winning goal and Jack Drury added a tally for Colorado while Nathan MacKinnon posted a pair of assists to reach 70 helpers on the season.

"[We] put ourselves in position to win in the third period," Wedgewood, the first star of Tuesday's game, said. "And [we] went out and did that."

With the win, the Avalanche improved to 3-0-0 on their six-game homestand and 36-24-2 overall.

How It Happened

After no goals in the first period, Lehkonen opened the scoring with his 25th tally of the year via a one-timer from the slot set up by MacKinnon's feed at 6:36 of the middle frame.

Rickard Rakell tied the game for Pittsburgh at 18:04 of the second period with a goal off the rush.

Late in the third period, Mittelstadt gave the Avs a 2-1 lead on the power play at 15:51 of the third period with his 11th goal of the year via a right-circle one-timer set up by Valeri Nichushkin's feed.

"That was a heck of a pass," Mittelstadt said about Nichushkin's feed. "Like I said before, [he] put it right on my tape and made my job pretty easy."

With the secondary helper on the goal, MacKinnon became the third player in franchise history to record multiple 70-assist seasons, joining Peter Stastny (five times) and Peter Forsberg (twice).

Scoring his second goal of the game and 26th of the season, Lehkonen doubled Colorado's lead with an empty-net tally at at 18:52 of the third period.

Drury posted his seventh goal of the season when he added an empty-net goal of his own at 19:52 of the third period.

Next Up

The Avalanche host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. MT on ESPN.