BUFFALO, N.Y. — Not too long ago, the Avalanche staked claim to a club record home winning streak.
Now, it’s the road dominance that is turning heads for the NHL’s winningest team (36-9-4, 76 points). Colorado’s 5-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at Key Bank Center on Saturday was its seven straight road triumph, the league’s longest active road winning streak and tied for the second-longest streak of its kind in club history.
The Avs, who are on a nine-game road points streak (8-0-1), won a club-record nine straight on the road from Feb. 4, 2020 to March 2, 2020. The Avs from Jan. 10, 1999 to Feb. 7, 1999, also won seven straight outside of Denver.
“It’s something we talked about earlier on in the year because when we got going at home we were only .500 on the road, but now to be able to string together seven in a row at a tough time of the year, I think it shows that we can play our game — not just in our building but on the road as well,” coach Jared Bednar said.
Buffaloed. The Avs own the Sabres, finishing the season series 2-0 and extending their winning streak to seven games. Colorado is 18-3-0 against Buffalo in the last 21 meetings.
The Avs are also 4-0-0 in matinee matchups this season, with the fifth afternoon showdown looming Monday against the Bruins at TD Garden.
Another comeback. The Avalanche trailed 1-0 early in overcoming a one-goal deficit for its 15th comeback win of the season. That’s third-most in the NHL this season behind two other really good teams — the Florida Panthers (17) and New York Rangers (16).
Hooked on Newy. Forward Alex Newhook, 21, scored his 11th goal of the season — tied for fifth-most among NHL rookies. He’s only played in 39 of 49 games, and has just seven assists for 18 points — so he’s not in the Calder Trophy conversation as rookie of the year.
But Newhook’s goal against Buffalo was his fourth game-winner of the season, tied with Dallas’ Jacob Peterson for the most among all first-year players. And only six Avalanche rookies have four or more game-winning tallies in the history of the club: Marek Svatos (nine), Paul Stastny (six), Milan Hejduk, Gabe Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon (each with five), and Cale Makar (four).
Impressive company.
The Kuemperor. Darcy Kuemper was looking for his third consecutive shutout but stopped 29 of 32 shots for his 25th win of the season, tied for third-most in the league and just one shy of the lead. Kuemper is on a club-record 18-game points streak (16-0-2) and has raised his save percentage to .920.
His shutout streak ended at 146:56, a stretch he is familiar with. He had shutout streaks of 193:58 in 2017-18 with Arizona and 164:02 in 2014-15 with Minnesota.
Fifty. Makar, the Norris Trophy favorite, didn’t have a great game against the Sabres. But he assisted on MacKinnon’s goal for his 50th point of the season, tied for second among NHL defensemen and just one behind Nashville’s Roman Josi for the lead. Makar’s 50 points tie his career-high, set in his rookie season of 2019-20 in which he played 57 games.
Makar continues to lead all league defensemen in goals (18) and points-per-game (1.11).
