Colorado travels to Canada Life Centre for Game Five of the first round against Winnipeg. The Avs won their 181st franchise playoff game Sunday afternoon and now sit just one game away from moving on to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Avalanche/Nordiques have a 10-5 record on the road in game fives in franchise history, the highest winning percentage (.667) of any road game in a series.
ROUND ONE SCHEDULE AND RESULTS VS. WPG
- April 21 at Winnipeg - Game 1; Result: WPG: 7 COL: 6
- April 23 at Winnipeg - Game 2; Result: COL: 5 WPG: 2
- April 26 vs. Winnipeg - Game 3; Result: COL: 6 WPG: 2
- April 28 vs. Winnipeg - Game 4, Result: COL: 5 WPG: 1
- April 30 at Winnipeg - Game 5, 7:30 PM MT / 8:30 PM CT (ESPN, ALT)
- May 2 vs. Winnipeg – Game 6*, TBD
- May 4 at Winnipeg – Game 7*, TBD
*If necessary
REGULAR SEASON RESULTS VS. WPG
- December 7 vs. Winnipeg (L, 4-2)
- December 16 at Winnipeg (L, 6-2)
- April 13 vs. Winnipeg (L, 7-0)
BATTLING AT BALL ARENA
The Avalanche successfully defended home ice once again Sunday in Game Four with a 5-1 victory. Artturi Lehkonen opened the scoring for the Avalanche, putting a shot over the glove of Connor Hellebuyck. The Jets responded just 5:46 later when Nate Schmidt found the back of the net to level the game going into the first intermission. Colorado lit the lamp three times in the middle frame to take a 4-1 lead, receiving contributions from Valeri Nichushkin (power play), Cale Makar, and Nichushkin with the man advantage once more. With just 12 seconds remaining in regulation, Nichushkin scored an empty-net goal to complete his hat trick. Alexandar Georgiev stopped 26-of-27 shots en route to his third victory of the postseason.
BIG TIME PLAYERS
Nathan MacKinnon chipped in two assists. He’s the sixth player in Avalanche/Nordiques history to record at least 10 multi-assist games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Two days after teammate Mikko Rantanen hit the mark, MacKinnon also reached 30 career multi-point games in the postseason, becoming just the fourth Avalanche/Nordique to achieve the milestone.
Makar’s tally put him in a tie with Sandis Ozolinsh (18) for the most by a defenseman in Avalanche/Nordiques history.
Nichushkin netted his first career hat trick, regular season or playoffs. His six playoff goals through four games are tied with Edmonton's Zach Hyman for the league lead. His hat trick was the 13th playoff three-goal game in franchise history and the first since MacKinnon’s on May 25, 2022.
Lehkonen opened the scoring on Sunday afternoon with his fourth goal in as many games, extending his career-long goal streak in postseason play. The four straight games with a goal to begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs by Lehkonen and Nichushkin are tied for the longest in Avalanche history and one shy of Michel Goulet (1985) for the longest in franchise history.
Per NHL Stats & Info, the pair of goal streaks mark the third set of teammates in NHL history with simultaneous playoff-opening goal streaks of four-plus games, following Lanny McDonald and Joe Mullen (1985-86 Flames) and Ron Duguay and Ulf Nilsson (1980-81 Rangers). They are also tied for the third-longest in Avalanche history regardless of start date.
Casey Mittelstadt followed up his three-assist Game Three with another helper in Game Four. The centerman has produced 1g/4a in four games during his first NHL playoff run.
Nikolai Kovalenko made his NHL debut on Sunday, seeing 7:17 of ice time. Kovalenko is the sixth player in franchise history and fourth since relocation to make his NHL debut in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, following Sampo Ranta (5/30/21), Makar (4/15/19), Joey Hishon (4/24/14), Mike Hough (5/5/85) and Randy Moller (4/27/82).
Additionally, Kovalenko followed his father Andrei’s footsteps in playing for the franchise. Nikolai and Andrei are the fourth father-son combination to play for the Avalanche/Nordiques franchise, following Paul and Kurtis MacDermid, Peter and Paul Stastny, and Ron and John Grahame.
AMAZING AVALANCHE
Colorado has won three postseason games in a row for the first time since its seven-game run in 2022. The Avs’ 22 tallies through four games are tied with the Edmonton series (2022) for the most goals through the first four contests in franchise history.
The Avalanche power-play unit converted twice in a game for the third time this series. The team’s overall efficiency of 40.0% (6-for-15) ranks third in the NHL entering Tuesday's action. In franchise history, the six power-play goals are tied for the third-most through its first four playoff games.
POSTSEASON STANDOUTS
8
Makar leads all NHL blueliners in points this postseason with eight (2g/6a) in four games.
10
Lehkonen (4) and Nichushkin (6) both rank in the top-5 among all NHL skaters of goal scorers this playoffs
93
Mikko Rantanen sits at 93 (30g/63a) career postseason points. With his second assist this postseason, Rantanen moved past Teemu Selanne (88 points) for sole possession of the third-most career playoff points by a Finnish-born player in league history.
QUOTE(S) THAT LEFT A MARK
“I think we just need to play between the whistles. It’s a 60-minute game we don’t need to get caught up in the extracurricular stuff. When me and Woody (Colorado LW Miles Wood) are out there we are just trying to cause a little havoc, play physical and play clean at the same time.”
- Colorado C Ross Colton on The Physical Play This Series
