The Avalanche’s cold spell might be over. The Avs, who entered Thursday on a three-game winless skid and having lost four straight at home, put a big hurt on the defending Stanley Cup champions at the .
In a showdown between Central Division rivals and two of the top teams in the Western Conference, the Avs weathered a mid-game storm and went on to blast the Blues 7-3.
“All the things we talked about was a lot better,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Really committed to the way we wanted to play.”
scored two goals and had a goal and three assists. , and scored power-play goals and goalie collected his first victory since Dec. 4 at Toronto; Grubauer was 0-4-1 in his previous five starts.
Colorado, which also had four assists from and a late goal by , led 1-0 after the first period and took a 4-2 lead into the third. They got insurance goals from Kadri and Compher before Donskoi added some embarrassment for the visitors to make it 7-3.
Robert Thomas scored twice for the Blues (26-10-6, 58 points). Colorado, which went 3 of 5 on the power play and reached 42 shots for the fourth consecutive game, improved to 24-13-4 (52 points).
“Big win,” MacKinnon said. “Scoring seven against a good defensive team is probably not going to happen again. But good game by everybody. Really solid and it’s nice to finally get a win.”
In a wild, five-goal second period, the Avs scored at 3:20 (Kadri), 7:40 (Rantanen) and 19:44 (Makar). The Blues got within 3-2 with consecutive goals from Robert Thomas and Alex Pietrangelo before Makar used his lethal long wrist shot to restore Colorado’s two-goal lead.
“To get that goal, to kind of calm things down and give us a two-goal lead back into the third was huge,” Bednar said.
Combined, there were three power-play goals (Rantanen, Pietrangelo and Makar) in the second period, with the Avs going 2 for 3 and the Blues 1 for 1.
Colorado dominated the first part of the middle frame by outshooting St. Louis 14-4. Kadri scored with a wrist shot from the goalline that appeared to carom in off goalie Jordan Binnington for a 2-0 lead. And Rantanen got the next goal with a one-time blast from the right circle.
But then the Blues came alive, rallying with a wrap-around goal by Thomas and Pietrangelo’s big slap shot just three seconds into Sam Girard’s interference minor. Thomas’ goal could have been prevented if defenseman had a stick, but he lost it earlier in the shift while trying to make a check against the boards.
MacKinnon opened the scoring with a Hart Trophy-worthy unassisted goal. He caused a turnover against the sideboards in the defensive zone and raced up ice on a breakaway before beating Binnington with a quick wrist shot from between the circles with 11 seconds remaining in the first period.
“Good play, good pressure,” MacKinnon said. “(Gabe Landeskog) was defending and their forward, I just poked at it and got a breakaway. It was good that I finally buried a breakaway.”
Footnotes. The Avs’ scratches were forward and defenseman . …The Avs will not practice Friday but meet at the airport for a mid-day flight to New Jersey. They’ll have a morning skate ahead of Saturday’s game against the Devils. The three-game trip features consecutive-night games in New York against the Islanders and Rangers.
pound Blues 7-3. Here’s Coach Bednar
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers)
