Avs bury Vegas with a dominating, four-goal second period

The Avalanche didn’t start out well on Thursday, trailing the visiting Vegas Golden Knights by one after a first period that coach Jared Bednar didn’t much like. “The game was a little bit sloppy. I just didn’t think we had a lot of energy,” Bednar explained.

That certainly wasn’t the case in the second period, as the Avalanche came out flying and tied the game on a remarkable power-play goal from Joonas Donskoi that saw him smack a bouncing puck out of mid-air and past Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. The floodgates opened after that as J.T. Compher, Cale Makar and Gabriel Landeskog all scored, obviously frustrating the usually unflappable Fleury as the second period ended with some chippy play and the two teams needing to be separated before they headed to their respective locker rooms.

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare topped things off with a third-period goal that provided the game’s final, 5-1 score, and the Avalanche’s stingy defense made sure it held up, surrendering only 19 shots on the night; 10 of them in the final frame.

Of late, 19 shots isn’t nearly enough to affect Philipp Grubauer, who won his eighth-straight game on Thursday, becoming the fastest goaltender in team history to reach 20 wins on the season. When you’re breaking Patrick Roy’s team records, you know you’ve got things cooking. “He’s been unbelievable all year,” Compher said after the game. “Anytime he’s in the net, he’s poised, he’s calm and he’s making the saves. When you have a goalie that’s rolling like that, it just breeds confidence in the room.”

After winning their eighth game in their last nine outings — and beating division rival Vegas on Thursday — the Avs pulled even with the Golden Knights atop the West division with 45 points. Given the NHL’s unusual scheduling this season, the confident Avalanche now have the opportunity to take control of the division with another win in Saturday afternoon’s rematch.

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NEXT UP: Avalanche (21-8–3, 45 pts) vs. Golden Knights (22-8–1, 45 pts), Saturday, Mar. 27 at 1:00 pm

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TEAM NOTES:

• Jared Bednar earned the 166th regular-season victory of his Avalanche career on Thursday, moving him past Marc Crawford (165) and into second place behind only Bob Hartley (193). Presuming that Bednar — now pursuing the Stanley Cup title that the two previous men each earned — remains the coach next season, he’ll become the longest-tenured head coach in Avalanche history, as well.

• Nine different players had points for the Avalanche on Thursday, and Nathan MacKinnon wasn’t one of them; a testament to Colorado’s depth. Six players have 10 or more goals —Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog, Joonas Donskoi, MacKinnon, Nazem Kadri and Brandon Saad — joining Florida as the only two teams in the NHL with that many.

• Colorado’s 45 points on the season sees them only five points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, who lead the league with 50. The Avalanche’s +39 goal differential is second to the Lightning’s +42 mark; the next closest belongs to the Golden Knights, who have a +29 after Thursday’s loss in Denver.

• The Avalanche wore special “Boulder Strong” jerseys in warmups on Thursday; the players will sign them and the team will auction them off to raise money for the Colorado Healing Fund (coloradohealingfund.org), which supports the needs of victims and families affected by the tragic shooting in Boulder on Monday, in which 10 people’s lives were needlessly taken.

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PLAYER NOTES:

• Mikko Rantanen’s goal-scoring streak came to an end on Thursday, but he had an assist to extend his point streak to seven games, in which he’s scored seven goals and seven assists. Rantanen’s 19 goals on the season lead the Avalanche by eight, and put him third in the NHL behind only Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Toronto’s Auston Matthews, who each have 21.

• Phillip Grubauer is on an eight-game win streak that includes three shutouts. In the other five games, he’s allowed only one goal in each; good for 0.65 goals-against average. He’s saved 97.1 percent of opponents’ shots during this extraordinary run.

• J.T. Compher scored a goal and had an assist on Thursday, giving him three points in three games since returning from injury on Mar. 20. In the 20 games prior to that, Compher had collected only four.

• Sam Girard had an assist on Thursday as his breakout season continues. Girard leads all Colorado defensemen with 25 points and is fourth on the team in scoring overall.

• • •

THE FINAL WORD: “We were heartbroken when we found out the news. It was just way too close to home. Us wearing the jerseys, in the grand scheme of things, maybe doesn’t change a whole lot or mean much. But we just wanted to show our support. The jerseys will be donated and the money will be used to aid the victims’ families. It’s just a little bit of something that we can do.” — Gabriel Landeskog, on the “Boulder Strong” warmup jerseys the Avalanche wore on Thursday.

• • •

INJURY WATCH:

• D Conor Timmins (upper-body injury) missed the Mar. 8 game and has not played since.

• D Dennis Gilbert (facial injury, COVID-19 protocol) was placed on injured reserve on Feb. 20. He is expected to be out until at least late March.

• D Erik Johnson (upper-body injury) left the Jan. 30 game and has no projected return date. On March 25, coach Jared Bednar suggested that it was possible that Johnson could miss the remainder of the season.

• G Pavel Francouz (lower-body injury) has yet to play this season and remains on injured reserve. On March 25, coach Jared Bednar suggested that it was possible that Francouz could miss the remainder of the season.

• • •

LAST NIGHT’S LINES:

FORWARDS:

Top Line: LW Gabriel Landeskog, C Nathan MacKinnon, RW Mikko Rantanen

Second Line: LW Brandon Saad, C Nazem Kadri, RW Andre Burakovsky

Third Line:, LW Valeri Nichushkin, C Tyson Jost, RW Joonas Donskoi

Fourth Line: LW J.T. Compher, C Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, RW Logan O’Connor

DEFENSEMEN:

Top Pair: LD Devon Toews, RD Cale Makar

Second Pair: LD Jacob MacDonald, RD Samuel Girard

Third Pair: LD Ryan Graves, RD Bowen Byram

GOALTENDERS:

Starter: Philipp Grubauer

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