Rapid Recap: Avalanche 3, Blues 2

The Colorado Avalanche extended its point streak to 13 games with a 3-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Ball Arena on Friday. It is just the third time in Avs history that the team has had a point streak of 13 or more outings.
Nathan MacKinnon scored twice while Brandon Saad also tallied in the contest. Gabriel Landeskog had two assists while Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Cale Makar and Jacob MacDonald had a helper apiece in the game, the first with ticketed fans at Ball Arena this year.
Goaltender Jonas Johansson stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced to earn his first victory with the Avs.

Colorado went 2-for-6 on the power play and had a 39-27 edge in shots on goal in the contest.
Mike Hoffman and David Perron tallied for St. Louis while netminder Jordan Binnington made 36 saves.
The Avs and Blues meet again on Saturday to conclude the back-to-back set in Denver.

THE GOALS

1st Period
3:24 COL (1-0) - PPG, Brandon Saad put home the rebound from a Nazem Kadri shot in the crease on the power play.
3:50 STL (1-1) - Mike Hoffman took a pass from Brayden Schenn and tied the game with a shot that went near side.
14:43 COL (2-1) - PPG, Nathan MacKinnon took the puck from the goal line, turned toward the net and scored glove side.
2nd Period
13:11 COL (3-1) - Nathan MacKinnon skated through all three zones down the right wing and scored his second of the game from the bottom of the right circle.
17:16 STL (3-2) - PPG, David Perron scored from the left circle while St. Louis had a 4-on-3 power play.
3rd Period
No Scoring
Final: Avalanche - 3 | Blues - 2

3 STARS

Selected by Colorado Hockey Coach of the Game: Lauren Spatenka (Cherry High School Junior Varsity, 2021 JV State Champions)

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 2 for 6
St. Louis: 1 for 5

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Jonas Johansson made 25 saves to earn his first win with Colorado.
St. Louis: Jordan Binnington allowed three goals on 39 shots.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Brandon Saad scored on the power play in the first period to pick up his 20th point of the season (11 goals, nine assists). He became the 10th Avalanche player with at least 20 points this year, the most of any team in the league. The Avs have six 10-plus goal scorers, tied for first in the NHL.

NOTEBOOK

Nathan MacKinnon registered his first multi-goal game of the season to extend his point streak to four games. He has two goals and five assists in the stretch… Gabriel Landeskog had two assists in the contest to record his ninth multi-point outing of the year. It was also his sixth game with more than one point in the team's last nine matchups... The line of Landeskog, MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen has combined for 47 points (18 goals, 29 assists) in the last nine contests and 57 points (23 goals, 34 assists) in the last 12... Liam O'Brien skated in his first game with the Avalanche after signing an NHL deal with the club on Wednesday… The Avs scored the first goal of the game for the 26th time this season, the most of any team. They are now 21-3-2 when lighting the lamp first... Colorado's first goal came at 3:24 of the first period, the fourth-straight game that the Avalanche has found the back of the net less than five minutes into the game... The Avalanche's streak of 13 games with a point is just the third time the team has strung together 13 games with a point or more. They had a 16-game run in 2000-01 and a 14-game streak in 2002-03... The Avs are 10-0-1 in their last 11 contests at Ball Arena, their longest home point streak since the Avalanche went 11 straight home games with a point in 2002-03 (17 in a row)... It was the third meeting of the season between Colorado and St. Louis, with the Avalanche improving to 2-1-0 in the series. The clubs are set to play six times in 23 days this month.

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

First Game in Burgundy & Blue

ROSTER REPORT

Liam O'Brien made his Avalanche debut, skating on a line with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Kiefer Sherwood, who was recalled from the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles earlier in the day. J.T. Compher was on the third line with Tyson Jost and Joonas Donskoi, while the other forward trios and defensive pairings remained the same. Goaltender Jonas Johansson made his second start with Colorado.

INJURY UPDATE

Valeri Nichushkin and Logan O'Connor both missed their first outings of the year due to injury with upper-body ailments. O'Connor will be out "weeks," though he is still being evaluated. Rookie Bowen Byram is day-to-day with an upper-body injury but is not expected to play this weekend. Matt Calvert (upper body) is week-to-week, while Pavel Francouz (lower body) and Erik Johnson (upper body) remain out long term.

UP NEXT

Colorado wraps up the back-to-back against St. Louis on Saturday. The outing will conclude a six-game homestand and a stretch that has the Avalanche playing 15-of-17 games at Ball Arena.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on start of the game
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
37 J.T. Compher - 17 Tyson Jost - 72 Joonas Donskoi
38 Liam O'Brien - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 44 Kiefer Sherwood
Defensemen
49 Samuel Girard - 7 Devon Toews
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
2 Dan Renouf - 34 Jacob MacDonald
Goaltenders
35 Jonas Johansson
31 Philipp Grubauer