Avs Fourth Line Sets Tone versus Vegas

The Colorado Avalanche has had a different combination of players on its fourth line for the past three games, and the trio of J.T. Compher, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Logan O'Connor came together on Thursday and helped energize the squad.
All three skaters found the scoresheet, combining for two goals, two assists and a plus-9 rating in the Avalanche's 5-1 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena. The win put Colorado in a tie with Vegas at the top of the West Division standings with 45 points on the campaign.
"I thought they were outstanding. Outstanding. Great details, great work ethic," head coach Jared Bednar said of his fourth line. "All three of them skated real well tonight. It wasn't fancy. Real disciplined with the puck, playing in behind their defense, getting up on the forecheck, just tenacious and relentless on their puck pursuit whether it was going forward to try and score or returning to try to break up their attack.

"Just playing the right way. I thought that was a great game by that group. They definitely set the tone for our team and definitely had a large part in helping us get the win tonight."
Compher had his first multi-point game of the season with an unassisted tally that stood as the game-winner and a helper on Bellemare's goal 3:54 into the final frame. Compher missed seven games in March with an upper-body injury and has alternated spots on the fourth line with O'Connor and Matt Calvert since being medically cleared to return to game action.

"When you are rehabbing to get back from an injury, you are skating, you are working out, you are doing all those things that your preparation kind of gives you some confidence. His first game was a little slow, his second game was much better, and tonight I thought he was outstanding," Bednar said of Compher. "He looked like he had his legs underneath him, that's the best he's skated all year, and he gets rewarded for his hard work. Good tenacious game for him, and hopefully that's a sign of things to come here in the second half."
Bellemare's goal was his second in the past three games and increased Colorado's lead to 5-1. Since signing with the Avs before the 2019-20 season, he has tallied six points (four goals, two assists) in seven contests against the Golden Knights, the team that he played for from 2017-2019.

The third member of the fourth line, O'Connor, got on the scoresheet with the primary assist on Cale Makar's goal in the second period--his first helper in the league.
The Avalanche finished the contest with five different goal scorers and tallied five unanswered goals, including four in the middle frame to match the team's most in a period so far this year.
"In the second we started getting some power plays, our power play wasn't great, but our 5-on-5 play was, and I thought we really got some timely goals, and we were able to build off of that," said Gabriel Landeskog. "Guys stepped up big. Good to see Comph get on the board and Cale obviously had a beautiful goal and Donny (Joonas Donskoi), big goal again. Belly as well with that in the third early on; it's still a 4-1 hockey game, and it's a game and then Comph makes a good play to Belly. I think overall a good team effort for us tonight and get ready for Saturday."

STREAKS EXTENDED

The Avalanche stretched its point streak to nine contests, going 8-0-1 during the streak. Colorado also extended its season-long home win streak to seven games, the second-longest home winning streak in the NHL this season (Minnesota has a current 11-game run).
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer extended his career-long winning streak to eight outings, the fifth netminder in franchise history to win eight straight. It was also his 20th win of the season, the first goalie in Avalanche/Nordiques history to reach 20 wins in fewer than 30 appearances.
Over his eight-game win streak, Grubauer has allowed just one goal or less in each contest, recording a 0.65 goals-against average and .971 save percentage in that span.

Gabriel Landeskog extended his season-best point streak to seven contests (four goals, nine assists) and his assist streak to a career-long seven games (nine). With a goal and an assist in the outing, he passed Alex Tanguay (488) for eighth place in franchise history and fifth in Avalanche history in scoring (489).
Mikko Rantanen also stretched his point streak to eight contests (seven goals, seven assists), his longest streak of the season.

BOULDER STRONG

During warmup, the Avalanche wore special third jerseys in honor of those that died in Monday afternoon's tragedy in Boulder.
These special-made jerseys have the words "Boulder Strong" on the nameplate and are No. 10 to represent the 10 people killed in the mass shooting at the King Soopers off Table Mesa Drive on Monday. The player who wore each sweater autographed it after warmup, and the jerseys will be auctioned off next week.
"We were heartbroken when we found out the news, it is just way too close to home," said Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. "I know us wearing the jerseys in the grand scheme of things maybe doesn't change a whole lot or mean much, but we just wanted to show our support… A little bit of something that we can do. It's sickening, and we are all heartbroken for the victims and their families and all of Boulder and Colorado."
All proceeds from the auction will go to the Colorado Healing Fund. The auction runs from Monday, March 29 to Thursday, April 1 at 8 p.m. MT at
www.ksc.givesmart.com
, and the jerseys can also be bid on by texting "KSC" to 76278.

MORE POSTGAME NOTES

The Avs' seven consecutive home wins is their longest home win streak since a 10-game stretch during the 2017-18 campaign.
Colorado now has a 13-4-1 home record this season, tied for the second-most home victories in the NHL. The New York Islanders, Vegas, Minnesota and Tampa. Bay also have 13 home wins.
The Avalanche is 12-2-2 over its last 16 games.
Tonight's victory was the 166th NHL win for Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. He moved past Marc Crawford into sole possession of third place in franchise history and owns a 166-144-38 (.532) overall career record.
Philipp Grubauer's 20 wins rank second in the NHL, and his 10 victories in March are a league best and equals the franchise record for wins in a single month: Semyon Varlamov (January 2014), Craig Anderson (October 2009), Peter Budaj (March 2007) and Dan Bouchard (February 1981).
Grubauer appeared in his 100th game in an Avalanche sweater and now owns a 57-34-9 record with Colorado. This year, his 1.69 goals-against average ranks first among netminders while his .931 save percentage ranks second (Andrei Vasilevskiy, .932).
Mikko Rantanen has notched 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) during his seven-game point streak and has 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) in March, ranked second in the league. His 11 goals are tops in the NHL for the month.
Joonas Donskoi scored his 11th goal of the season, tied for second on the team. He leads the league with a 29.7-percent shooting percentage.