Strong Start Leads to Solid Win

Facing a team that it is neck and neck with in the standings, the Colorado Avalanche came out strong and maintained a high level of pressure throughout the entire 60 minutes. That effort earned the Avs a 5-1 win against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at Ball Arena.
Colorado set the tone early and outshot Minnesota by a 25-6 margin in the first period. The Avs' 25 shots on goal equaled the third most in a single frame in franchise history.
"I think the start tonight was going to be real important. Minny is a strong starting hockey team, and I think they were 10-1 in their last 30 days when they score first and I believe that we were 9-1, so that first goal was an important one," said head coach Jared Bednar. "I thought our guys came out hungry and skating and in attack mode trying to get it. We probably came down a little bit in the second, and I thought you know at times in the second we started to ramp it up again and had a really good third. Real nice all-around effort, good job on both special teams I thought, and 5-on-5 play, guys were playing hard both sides of the puck."

Nathan MacKinnon deked around two Minnesota defenders to get the Avalanche on the board midway through the first period, scoring for the fourth contest in a row. The Avs took the momentum from that goal and improved to 16-3-1 when scoring first this year, with their 16 wins tied for the most in the NHL.
"I know Nate's skill and I know what he can do with the puck, but there I thought they were going to poke the puck away and go the other way," Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog said of the tally. "But, knowing Nate, seeing Nate do crazier things with the puck, obviously he was able to go around one guy and toe drag the next guy and all of a sudden he was coming down toward the net. I am not surprised to see anything that that guy does anymore with the puck."
MacKinnon also assisted on the second goal of the game in the final minute of the opening stanza to pass Dale Hunter (322) to take sole possession of seventh place in franchise history and help Colorado secure a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.

The Avalanche finished the game with a 55-20 edge in shots on goal, and its plus-35 shot differential set a new franchise record. The team's plus-19 shot differential in the opening period was the highest by the Avs in a single period since Feb. 11, 1997 against the Los Angeles Kings (plus-21 in first period, 29-8). Colorado set its franchise shots record of 57 in that contest.
"I think that might have been one of our better periods of the season, and we came out and we had no passengers. Everybody was going and all four lines were kind of rolling over the bench," said Landeskog. "Part of the game plan is always to create scoring chances and get pucks and bodies to the net. But I mean not every night you get 50-plus shots, but that just kind of starts with that first period. We had [25] shots in that first period, and we just kind of fed off of that as a team and that's the only way to score goals. At times our group has been a little snake bitten, and there's no better way to get out of it than throw stuff there and see what happens."
MacKinnon and Landeskog both finished the game with a goal and two assists while their linemate, Mikko Rantanen, ended the contest with two markers and two helpers, registering his second four-point performance of the year.

The trio combined for 10 points (four goals, six assists) in the outing, the seventh time since they came together on the same line in 2017-18 that the threesome has collected 10 or more points in a regular-season game.
Entering the contest, Colorado was one point behind Minnesota in the West Division standings but gained the advantage with the win. The Avs now have 38 points and an 18-8-2 record while the Wild has 37 points and an 18-9-1 mark through 28 games this year.

"We just wanted to leapfrog them. They can leapfrog us Saturday, so we need to bring that desperation again and keep passing teams," MacKinnon said of the Avalanche's mindset heading into the game. "We were fourth before the L.A. games, L.A. was two points behind us then, so we have a lot of urgency. Our division is very tight, we are trying to separate ourselves, we are getting healthy finally and hopefully the second half of the year can be lots of wins."
Midway through the 2020-21 campaign, the Avs are 18-8-2 and their .679 points percentage is the team's third highest at the season's halfway point since moved to Denver 25 years ago.

LANDESKOG TIES McLEOD

Gabriel Landeskog appeared in his 659th career outing, tying Cody McLeod for the fourth most contests in an Avalanche sweater. Only Milan Hejduk (1020), Joe Sakic (870) and Adam Foote (760) have played more games since the team moved to Denver.
"It does make me feel a little bit old, but I mean it's nothing you think about," said Landeskog. "You just try to prepare for every game and try to put the work in and all of a sudden time flies by, and yeah, it's crazy I guess when you think about it. Fiver (McLeod) was here for a long time, and I played with him for a long time."
Since being selected with the second overall pick by Colorado in the 2011 NHL Draft, Landeskog has recorded 481 points and his 206 goals rank third all-time in Avs history.

DUO OF YOUNG D-MEN RETURN

Bowen Byram and Cale Makar were back in the lineup for the Avs after missing nine and 10 games, respectively, with upper-body injuries. They had previously last played in the back-to-back series at the Arizona Coyotes at the end of February, with Makar last suiting up on Feb. 26 and Byram last skating on Feb. 27.
Makar had six shots in 19:13 of ice time while Byram finished the game with one hit in 15:58 played.

"I thought Bo had an excellent first period, he was up the ice and like the rest of our team in attack mode," said Bednar. "He was skating with the puck, looked confident, looked good, looked light on his feet. Thought he kind of had a little bit of a dip in the second period, but picked it up again in the third, and Cale looked good. He looked like he had his legs underneath him and was doing some good things, maybe a little bit rusty with the puck at times and some of his timing but I was expecting that. He's been out for a significant amount of time now and Bo has been sort of gearing up to play a little bit longer, but looks like it's going to come back pretty quick here for Cale. He did a nice job tonight in a lot of different areas."
Forward J.T. Compher has been cleared medically to play but did not suit up as head coach Jared Bednar wanted to get the center some more conditioning time before his expected return to the lineup on Saturday.

MORE AVALANCHE NOTES

The Avs' 55 shots on goal ranks second in franchise history for shots in a game and are the most by any team in the league this season.
Colorado has held its opponent to less than 30 shots for a franchise-record 18 straight games. In their last six contests, the Avs have outshot their opponents by a combined margin of 259-116 (plus-143). The club averages a league-best 24.7 shot-per-game average.
The Avalanche has won a season-high five straight games and is 9-2-1 in its last 12 outings. Colorado has scored the first goal in each game of that stretch and is 16-3-1 overall this season when lighting the lamp first.
Nathan MacKinnon has goals in four straight games, his longest goal streak of the season. He finished with three points (one goal, two assists), the third time in the 2020-21 campaign that he has tallied three or more points in a contest.
Gabriel Landeskog (one goal, two assists) extended his point streak to three games, matching his season high (Feb. 27-March 3). He has recorded five points (one goal, four assists) over that stretch.
Mikko Rantanen (two goals, two assists) recorded his second consecutive multi-point outing and third in four contests. He has tallied nine points (four goals, five assists) over that span and has 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in Colorado's 10 games this month, the most goals in the league in March and ranked third in points. His first goal was his fourth game-winning tally of the season, tied with Gabriel Landeskog for the team lead.
Philipp Grubauer earned his 17th win of the season, one shy of his career best reached in each of the last two campaigns. He ranks second to Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy (19) in wins, while his 1.82 goals-against average is first among netminders.