Rapid Recap: Avalanche 7, Golden Knights 1 (Game 1)

The Colorado Avalanche won 7-1 against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday at Ball Arena in Game 1 of the second round in the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Cale Makar led the Avalanche with a playoff career-high four points, scoring in the third period and also adding three assists. Forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog both had two goals and an assist, and Mikko Rantanen (goal and assist) also had a multi-point performance.
Brandon Saad also scored for Colorado, while goaltender Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves in the victory.

The Avs led 2-0 after the first period, with Mikko Rantanen opening the scoring 4:55 into the contest, before the team added four more tallies in the middle frame.
William Karlsson recorded the only marker for Vegas in the contest, and goalie Robin Lehner made 30 saves on 37 shots.
The game featured 76 penalty minutes, with 64 occurring in the third period.
After sweeping the first-round series against the St. Louis Blues, the Avalanche has now won five straight postseason games for the fourth time in Avs history and the first since May 11-22, 1999. Colorado has now scored five or more goals in the fourth straight contests for the first time in franchise playoff history

THE GOALS

1st Period
4:55 COL (1-0) - On a rush up the ice, Mikko Rantanen took a pass from Devon Toews and scored with a backhand shot from the right circle.
10:13 COL (2-0) - Gabriel Landeskog took a cross-feed from Cale Makar and tallied into an open net.
2nd Period
1:04 COL (3-0) - Valeri Nichushkin moved the puck over to Brandon Saad, who scored from the left side to extend his goal streak to four games.
4:03 COL (4-0) - Nathan MacKinnon tallied his seventh goal of the playoffs from the left circle.
14:23 COL (5-0) - PPG, Mikko Rantanen fed Gabriel Landeskog the puck in front and the Avs captain tapped it in.
14:59 VGK (5-1) - Max Pacioretty passed the puck to the front of the net and William Karlsson knocked it in.
17:05 COL (6-1) - Nathan MacKinnon took a leading pass from Joonas Donskoi in the neutral zone and scored on a breakaway.
3rd Period
15:49 COL (7-1) - PPG, Cale Makar recorded his fourth point of the night by scoring on a one-time blast from the high slot.
Final: Avalanche - 7 | Golden Knights - 1

3 STARS

Selected by David, Marek and Milan Hejduk (Avalanche Alumni Association)

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 2 for 6
Vegas: 0 for 2

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Philipp Grubauer stopped 24-of-25 shots.
Vegas: Robin Lehner made his first appearance of the postseason and made 30 saves.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Mikko Rantanen scored and had an assist to extend his playoff point streak to 15 games, dating back to the 2020 postseason. It is a new franchise record for the longest streak including multiple postseasons and tied for the 13th longest in NHL history. Nathan MacKinnon previously held the franchise mark with a 14-game point streak, all occurring in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

NOTEBOOK

The Avalanche scored five or more goals for the fourth straight playoff game for the first time in franchise history… Colorado has now won 12 consecutive contests at Ball Arena dating back to the regular season… Cale Makar set a new postseason career high with four points, scoring and adding three assists. It was Makar's fourth career multi-point game in the postseason and his second three-assist performance in the playoffs... Makar now has 28 career postseason points, tied for the sixth-most by a defenseman through his first 30 career playoff games in NHL history… Brandon Saad extended his playoff career-high goal streak to four games, the fourth longest stretch in franchise history and the longest by an Avs player since Gabriel Landeskog (4) from April 14-20, 2018… Nathan MacKinnon scored his league-leading seventh goal… The Avs and Knights began their first-ever playoff series. The teams played one previous postseason game, back in 2020 during the round-robin portion of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers (VGK won 4-3 OT).

BIG HIGHLIGHT

Lighting the fuse.

IMAGE OF THE GAME

How it started. How it's going.

ROSTER REPORT

Rookie Sampo Ranta made his NHL debut, replacing Carl Soderberg on the fourth line, which also featured forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Alex Newhook. Other than that, Colorado began the game with the same forward combinations and defensive pairings as in last Sunday's Game 4 versus the St. Louis Blues. Devan Dubnyk was the backup goaltender to starter Philipp Grubauer.

INJURY UPDATE

• Ryan Graves left the game with 11:56 remaining in the third period after Vegas' Ryan Reeves punched him in the face while he was down on the ice. He returned to finish the frame.
• Matt Calvert (upper body): Out long term and is doubtful to return this year after having surgery; last played on March 23 at Arizona.
• Pavel Francouz (lower body): Expected to return fully healthy next season after having surgery earlier this year, hurt during practice on Jan. 18.
• Erik Johnson (upper body): Skated for the first time prior to Sunday's morning skate and could possibly return later in the playoffs depending on how he progresses; last played on Jan. 30 at Minnesota.
• Logan O'Connor (lower body): Has been skating on his own after having surgery and is ahead of schedule, according to head coach Jared Bednar; last played on March 31 vs. Arizona.

UP NEXT

Game 2 of the best-of-seven set is Wednesday at 8 p.m. MT before the series moves to Las Vegas for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on the start of the game
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 17 Tyson Jost - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
95 Andre Burakovsky - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
75 Sampo Ranta - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 18 Alex Newhook
Defensemen
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
27 Ryan Graves - 49 Samuel Girard
24 Patrik Nemeth - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
40 Devan Dubnyk