Top Line Leads Avs To Victory

The Colorado Avalanche's top line returned to Pepsi Center with a vengeance, wanting to be the difference makers for its club.
The trio of center Nathan MacKinnon, left wing Gabriel Landeskog and right wing Mikko Rantanen made their presence known as they factored in all three of Colorado's goals in its 3-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.
"It's nice, we had a great start. Mikko and Gabe, we wanted to take over tonight," said MacKinnon. "We wanted to rebound against Calgary where we didn't get it done, so it feels good."

Colorado was coming off a loss at the Calgary Flames on Saturday to finish a three-game road trip that concluded a stretch of 13-of-16 contests away from home.
"We always talk after games and before games too, and we didn't have good 5-on-5 games on that road trip and we wanted to bounce back tonight and lead the way 5-on-5, too," said Rantanen. "I think the biggest thing was defensively to be responsible and get the away team away from scoring chances, so that is what we did. In the O-zone, we were helping each other more and getting more and more shots, so that's the way we have to play."

Rantanen got the Avs on the scoreboard first with his team-leading 24th power-play point of the season, but Colorado's first forward unit also scored an even-strength goal and sealed the win with an empty-netter.
MacKinnon finished the night with three points, Rantanen registered his ninth man-advantage goal of the season and added an assist and Landeskog recorded his 25th helper of the campaign.
"We had to rebound off of that loss against Edmonton and Calgary. We knew we had better than what we had on the road trip, and I thought we got off to a good start tonight," said MacKinnon. "They had over 30 shots, but I thought they were a lot of perimeter and [Semyon Varlamov] obviously played great, as he always does. But we got on the attack, we were aggressive and it worked out."
Colorado is now 28-6-2 when scoring the first goal of the game, tied for the fourth-most wins in the NHL when hitting twine first.
"We could have had five in the first period," said MacKinnon. "That whole game, I felt like we had a chance every time we were on the ice. We were due."

The Avs' top trio has combined for 116 points (47 goals, 69 assists) at home this season and has helped Colorado earn a 21-8-1 record in its friendly confines.
"I liked the way our whole team played actually tonight. I thought we had four lines going and did a lot of good things," said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. "We were better defensively than we have been in some of the recent games on the road.
"It wasn't hard to tell early in the game MacKinnon was going to be flying, and I thought Mikko had a real strong game too. As a line, those guys created a lot of chances. We got one called back, they hit a post or two, scored a couple goals. A really good night. Exactly what we need from those guys as our top line."
Rantanen's ninth man-advntage goal ties him with MacKinnon for the team lead.
The tally was Rantanen's 20th of the season and marks the second consecutive campaign he has registered 20 goals. He attributes his success this year to those he is on the ice with the most.
"My linemates are helping me a lot. Two great players to play with," said Rantanen. "We have good chemistry there, and power play has been clicking lately. That's the big thing if you want to make the playoffs, but biggest thing is good linemates, and I am excited to play with them."

COMEAU'S 700th GAME

The contest marked forward Blake Comeau's 700th NHL game and his 216th contest in an Avalanche sweater.
He is tied for second in the NHL with three short-handed goals this campaign, a career high and the most by an Avs player since 2012-13 when Landeskog had three.
He played 1:38 of Colorado's four minutes while shorthanded and helped the Avs go 2-for-2 on the penalty kill in the game. The Avalanche has the NHL's top-ranked home penalty-kill unit this season, having allowed a league-low seven power-play goals on home ice.
Comeau has registered 30 goals and 48 assists in his three seasons with Colorado and has recorded 118 goals and 155 assists for 273 points in his career.

TRADE DEADLINE DAY

The NHL's trade deadline came at 1 p.m. MT on Monday and before that passed, Colorado acquired defenseman Ryan Graves from the New York Rangers in exchange for defenseman Chris Bigras.
Graves was in his third season with the Rangers' American Hockey League affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, where he has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in 57 games while serving as an alternate captain. He has totaled 62 points (21 goals, 41 assists) in 207 career AHL contests, all with Hartford.
Earlier in the day, the Avalanche announced that the team claimed defenseman Mark Alt on waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers.
Alt has split the 2017-18 season between the Flyers and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The 6-foot-4, 201-pound defenseman has skated in eight games for Philadelphia and 23 with Lehigh Valley this year.