The sticktoitiveness of the Avalanche behind captain Gabe Landeskog was a sight to behold Friday night at Ball Arena.
A 3-0 deficit to the Winnipeg Jets disappeared as quickly as it was built and Colorado scored six consecutive goals — three from Landeskog — en route to a remarkable 6-3 victory in the Central Division showdown.
It was the 16th comeback win of the season for the Avs, and this one trumped them all.
Winnipeg took a 3-0 lead out of the first period and the Avs matched that in the second, leading to Andre Burakovsky’s go-ahead goal early in the third and Nathan MacKinnon’s second with 7:47 remaining. Landeskog completed his hat trick on the ensuing shift.
“Sometimes it just doesn’t bounce your way and I feel like tonight they got some bounces that went against us and almost made it look easy,” Landeskog said. “It didn’t feel like it reflected 3-0, the way we played, but at the end of the day we were able to regroup and come back and that shows, definitely, character and strength in that locker room.”
Landeskog tallied the first and third goals, MacKinnon made it 3-2 after missing the previous game with a minor lower-body injury, and Burakovsky snapped a 17-game goals drought with his first tally since Jan. 14.
Winger Mikko Rantanen had three assists and he and MacKinnon were a team-leading plus-4. The top two lines accounted for all six goals and a combined 14 points.
“I thought that group was outstanding,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of his top-six forwards. “Even from the start. They got better as the game went on, but I thought they were pushing right away from the beginning. I didn’t feel like the first period was (poor). A 3-0 hole is hard to come out of but I felt like we were doing some good things and creating some chances. We knew if we corrected a few things on the defensive side of that that we’d continue to get some of those chances.”
He added: “I know the score (3-0) was bad, but I think our team just had belief and felt like we can do it.”
Landeskog began the comeback 3:10 into the second period — two seconds after Winnipeg killed off Mark Scheifele’s tripping minor on MacKinnon. Scheifele was out of the box but out of the play when Landeskog took a pass from Rantanen and stuffed the puck through goalie Connor Hellebuyck’s legs.
MacKinnon made it 3-2 at 12:20. Rantanen made a defensive-zone exit to Burakovsky, who slid the puck to MacKinnon in the neutral zone. MacKinnon skated to the right wing and blistered a shot past Hellebuyck from the right circle.
Landeskog tied it at 17:17 with one of his familiar redirections from atop the crease. Valeri Nichushkin took the relatively long shot and Landeskog changed the direction with the blade of his stick. Defenseman Erik Johnson didn’t get an assist but played a big factor in the goal. He pinched in to thwart the Jets’ breakout and kept the puck in their zone.
Colorado outshot the Jets 17-7 in the middle frame and 42-28 for the game. Winnipeg scored twice on its first five shots and winger Adam Lowry hammered a slap shot past goalie Pavel Francouz late in the first period.
Francouz shut the door from there, winning for the second consecutive game and improving to 9-2-0.
Footnotes. Forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. He was acquired off waivers from Philadelphia in November and had played 46 consecutive games for Colorado. Aube-Kubel has been in the doghouse of late by taking penalties in limited minutes on the fourth line. … Avs rookie defenseman Bo Byram, the first D-man selected in the 2019 draft (fourth overall), skated on his own before the full-team morning skate Friday. Thatap the 20-year-old’s third skate in four days since attempting his third comeback from multiple concussions and setbacks. Byram hasn’t played since Jan. 10. … The Avs reassigned defenseman Jacob MacDonald to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. MacDonald has played just seven NHL games this season and suffered a lengthy upper-body on Dec. 12 and was on injured reserve since.
