Colorado scored four straight goals in the second and the third period and ended a four-game slide with a 7-3 victory over Florida at BB&T Center.
"There was a lot of good things out of the Tampa game," said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. "I know we lost 5-2, but you got to take the positives out of it and we played large portions of that game pretty well against a really good team. We felt like if we came out with the same fire and determination that things will start happening for us."
Mikko Rantanen opened the scoring midway through the first period and then the Avs came back after the Panthers scored back-to-back goals. Nathan MacKinnon and Alexander Kerfoot tallied in a matter of 41 seconds of one another, and Colorado never trailed again.
Matt Nieto and Carl Soderberg recorded empty-net markers in the final 4:01 of regulation to give the Avalanche its first seven-goal game since Oct. 24, 2014 against the Vancouver Canucks (7-3 win).
"When you lose a handful in a row, you just have to stick with the process and I think our guys did that," Bednar said. "I really liked our start, loved our first period. It was kind of a little bit disappointing to come out of that 1-1, we gave up the late goal, but we stuck with it in the second. Even when we fell behind, we continued to push and did some good things."
In total, 14 of the Avs' 18 skaters recorded a point in the their second contest of a four-game road trip on the east coast.
"I think we have an offensive team in some ways," Rantanen said. "It's nice to see [14] guys get on the board, but the biggest thing was two points we got for the team."
Colorado had scored six goals in a game three times this season, and Saturday's output was the team's most since a 6-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Nov. 16.
"We played a really strong game today, scored lots of goals, played good defensively," said Avs goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who made 39 saves after the Panthers fired 20 shots on him in the third period. "We made a couple mistakes, but it is what it is, you know. It's nice to know the guys are scoring lots of goals, gives you the confidence, for sure."
Maybe the only part of the Avalanche's game that the squad didn't like was the end of the first period, when Florida's Aaron Ekblad scored from an outside shot with less than four seconds remaining before the intermission to tie the contest at 1-1.
"We gave up the goal at the end of the first, but we still kept the momentum and didn't give them too many chances," Rantanen said. "It was a good effort by the guys."
Winning in South Florida has been a common occurrence in Colorado's history. The Avalanche is now 11-3-2 all-time in the Panthers' home rink and 13-3-2 if the team's two victories in the 1996 Stanley Cup Final is included.
