Lehkonen has 3 points, breaks finger in Avalanche win against Canadiens

MONTREAL -- Artturi Lehkonen scored twice and had an assist, then broke his finger in the Colorado Avalanche's 8-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Monday.

Lehkonen left the game at 12:57 of the second period. There is no timeline for his return.
"He'll leave tomorrow from Toronto to head back and then follow it up with surgery the next day," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. " … I know he got hit with a shot."
It was Lehkonen's first game in Montreal since being traded by the Canadiens to the Avalanche on March 21, 2022.
"I don't know if I've ever heard a fan base cheer for one guy on the other team when he scores," Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. "So, that was a pretty cool experience when that happened. It felt like we were at a home game."

Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and two assists, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen each had a goal and an assist, and Makar had three assists for the Avalanche (37-22-6), who led 4-0 in the first period and have won three of four. Alexandar Georgiev made 15 saves.
Colorado, which was 3-for-3 on the power play, moved within four points of the Minnesota Wild, who have played two more games, for second in the Central Division.
"That's exactly how we would have liked to start," Avalanche forward Logan O'Connor said. "I think we didn't end the game on the right note; for example, we thought we could have been a little tighter and better in the third period. But we're definitely happy with the win overall to start this four-game road trip off."
Josh Anderson had a goal and an assist, and Nick Suzuki had two assists for the Canadiens (26-35-6), who have lost seven straight (0-5-2).
"They have so much motion and movement," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. "It's positionless offense and it can get very confusing, and I think we just got away from how we want to defend that. We were just so preoccupied with the movement instead of sticking to how we're supposed to defend it.
"And I definitely saw improvement, so we used the next two periods, especially the third, to try to correct ourselves a little bit and learn from it."
Jake Allen allowed six goals on 15 shots and was replaced by Sam Montembeault after J.T. Compher gave Colorado a 6-1 lead at 3:58 of the second. Montembeault made 16 saves in relief.
"Jake's not to blame," Canadiens defenseman David Savard said. "We played poorly in front of him. We left him on his own. It's very disappointing after all he has done for us this season."
Lehkonen put the Avalanche ahead 1-0 at 2:59 of the first period after deflecting O'Connor's wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle.
Bowen Byram made it 2-0 at 6:09 when he skated around Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle and cut across the goalmouth before reaching around Allen's pads to score.

Matt Nieto extended it to 3-0 at 8:05, and Lehkonen then scored his second goal of the period to make it 4-0 at 16:00 on the power play after Rantanen's shot went in off Lehkonen's glove. It was his 100th NHL goal.
"That's the loudest I've seen an away crowd cheer for an opposing crowd, especially being in Montreal, that's not something they typically do," O'Connor said. "But 'Art' clearly meant a lot to the organization here and made a big impact in his six years, so it's cool to see."
The goal was scored just after Lehkonen received a standing ovation during a video tribute.
"I thought it was great," Bednar said. "It doesn't surprise me that the fans here liked him a lot. I mean he's a player that plays as hard as he can in every situation every night and we've certainly grown to love him in Denver, and it doesn't surprise me they do here in Montreal as well."
Anderson cut it to 4-1 at 18:58, but Rantanen scored his 43rd goal at 1:48 of the second period for a 5-1 lead.
After Compher's goal put Colorado up 6-1,
Denis Gurianov
scored on a power play to make it 6-2 at 19:18.
MacKinnon scored in his fifth straight game and extended it to 7-2 at 8:09 of the third period with a power-play goal.

Chris Wideman cut it to 7-3 at 8:48 with his first goal of the season before Mike Matheson pulled the Canadiens within 7-4 at 10:35.
Nichuskin scored Colorado's third power-play goal at 13:09 for the 8-4 final.
NOTES: MacKinnon reached 80 points for the fifth time. … Rantanen has scored 34 goals at even strength, tying Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers for most in the NHL. It is the most by an Avalanche player, and the most in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques franchise history since Michel Goulet had 38 even-strength goals for Quebec in 1984-85. … Montreal forward Rem Pitlick left the game at 16:48 of the first period after Devon Toews was called for boarding. He will travel with the Canadiens to Pittsburgh.