New Avs Fourth Line Brought The Energy vs. Wild

Logan O'Connor spoke earlier in the day about how his line was looking to make an impact and create energy for his Colorado Avalanche teammates to benefit from. The new fourth line did just that from its very first shift, got rewarded, and continued that drive throughout the game.
Making his season debut, O'Connor scored the contest's opening goal on Saturday night to give the Avs an early lead in what became a 5-1 victory against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center.
"I think we all had the same mindset: keep it simple and use our speed. I feel like we can be an energy line for the guys." O'Connor said. "Go out there and do the little things that often get unrecognized. I felt like we did that throughout the game. We built off our first period and kept it going throughout the game, so hopefully we can continue to do that going forward."

O'Connor was called up from the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League to join the Avs' taxi squad on Wednesday and entered the lineup on Saturday beside Tyson Jost and Kiefer Sherwood following recent injuries to Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Matt Calvert. The trio played roughly 10 minutes together and made a positive impact when they took the ice.
"You put those three guys together and what you need out of them is energy and work ethic and make sure their touches are getting out of the zone and getting into the offensive zone where they can go and pursue the puck and get after the opposition, and that's exactly what we saw right away," said head coach Jared Bednar. "They get rewarded for some work early, they have another couple of chances. All of them had huge roles, especially Josty with the penalty kill tonight. So they form an identity, not just as individuals, but as a line."

O'Connor's marker was the third of his career and came after a fortunate deflection at 3:02 of the first period. His shot from the top of the left circle redirected off the stick of Minnesota goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, who had lost his lumber earlier in the sequence, and the puck changed directions just enough along the ice for it end up in the back of the net.
It was part of a strong start to Colorado's game, as the Avs outshot the Wild 7-1 in the first six and a half minutes and held a 14-6 edge in the category by the first intermission.
"Our line's mindset was just to keep it simple. You know, hound pucks, be relentless out there and use our speed," O'Connor said. "We all feel like we're pretty good skaters, so we just needed to constantly hound the D-men and be all over them and create turnovers."

The Avalanche's new fourth line is made up of young players looking to prove that they belong. O'Connor, 24, and Sherwood, 25, have each spent significant time in the minors but have been knocking on the NHL door for the last couple years, while Jost, 22, has changed his identity a bit as a player to be one that is sound defensively and is "tenacious" on plays.
The combo finished the night with four shots on goal on nine attempts.
"They come up with a lot of pucks, and if they didn't like what they saw for making a play, they punched it down low in the offensive zone and got to work again," Bednar said. "They were just a bunch of bees, swarming the puck all night. I thought all three of those guys worked really hard."
Bednar said the line will stay together for Sunday's contest in Minnesota, with him looking for the "bees" to continue swarming.

NO LONGER SAAD

Forward Brandon Saad recorded a goal and assist in the game, picking up his third-straight multi-point outing, a first for him in his nine-year NHL career.
Saad, 28, had the primary assist on Joonas Donskoi's power-play goal late in the first period that made it a 2-1 game and then found the back of the net himself with 7:43 left in regulation on a one-time snap shot to finish a pass from Nathan MacKinnon.
"I think points aside, you just want to keep improving all year long," Saad said. "It's a short training camp, you get into a quick season, new systems, new team, so you try and mesh and gel as quickly as you can, but you just take it game-by-game. The points are nice, and they make you feel good, but it's really game-by-game. It's a process here, we're looking at the big picture."
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native has three goals and three assists during his three-game streak and seven points on the season (four goals, three assists).

JOHNSON INJURED

Erik Johnson suffered an upper-body injury midway through the first period and didn't finish the contest. He last skated at the 10:50 mark of the opening frame and appeared to get hurt from a check along the boards by the Wild's Jordan Greenway.
"You know what I know," Bednar said of Johnson. "He went down hard, he left the game, we got word right away that he wasn't coming back, and I don't suspect that he's a player for us tomorrow either."
Johnson had played in three straight contests for the Avalanche after missing all of training camp and the start of the season while in COVID-19 protocol. He missed three games last week during the team's Southern California road trip, but that was due to him working on his conditioning after not being able to be active while in protocol.
Colorado was also without forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and defenseman Devon Toews for the first time this season. Bellemare got hurt in the first period of Thursday's win versus San Jose, while Toews's injury came from when he blocked a shot off his foot in the third period of that contest. Toews did not travel with the team to Minnesota and Bednar said more will be known about his status in the coming days.

MORE NOTES

The Avalanche finished 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and has now extinguished 19 straight penalties. Colorado's penalty kill unit is 30-for-33 (90.9 percent) this season, the top PK percentage in the NHL.
The Avalanche finished 2-for-7 on the power play and has scored with the man advantage in eight of its nine games this season. Overall, the Avs are 14-for-45 on the power play, leading the league in power-play goals and ranking seventh in power-play percentage.
Colorado is playing its second of seven back-to-back sets of the season and is now 1-1-0 in the first game of consecutive night sets.
The Avs allowed 20 shots on goal and currently ranks fifth in the league in shots against per game (25.4).
Mikko Rantanen has scored a goal in all five of Colorado's road games so far, the first player in franchise history to accomplish the feat. He now has seven goals this season, tied with Edmonton's Connor McDavid for the league lead.
Cale Makar registered an assist and now has 10 points this season, tied for second (Washington's John Carlson) for second among NHL defensemen.
Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to four games (five assists), while Andre Burakovsky (one goal, four assists), Joonas Donskoi (two goals, one assist), Cale Makar (five assists) and Brandon Saad (three goals, three assists) are on three-game point streaks.
Joonas Donskoi's first-period marker stood as the game winner, his first game-winning goal of the season and the 10th of his career.