Superstar center Nathan MacKinnon entered the game one goal shy of 200th for his Avalanche career. He didn’t score Saturday, but he was a catalyst on three Colorado goals.
The Avalanche continued their scoring surge behind MacKinnon’s three assists, shutting out the Minnesota Wild 6-0 at Ball Arena to complete a two-game sweep of their West Division rival.
Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves for the Avs to record his league-leading fifth shutout of the season.
Colorado (19-8-2) has won its last six games and currently sits second in the West — three points ahead of the Wild. It finished its nine-game homestand with a 7-1-1 record.
“There were no weak spots in our lineup,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We were committed on both sides of the puck and we’re starting to put real strong performances together here during our homestand. I don’t know if there was a game that I didn’t like.”
Along with MacKinnon, forwards Gabe Landeskog (goal, two assists) and Joonas Donskoi (two assists) and defensemen Cale Makar (goal, assist) and Ryan Graves (two assists) also recorded multiple points for the Avs.
MacKinnon and the Avalanche’s top power-play unit capitalized on the first opportunity they had. And what a play it was.
Just before entering the offensive zone, MacKinnon passed it off to Landeskog. The change-up gave Makar the ability to collapse in from the blueline before taking a drop pass from Landeskog and firing it past goalie Kaapo Kahkonen to make it 1-0 at 4:13.
MacKinnon later assisted on Landeskog and defenseman Devon Toews’ goals. Forwards Mikko Rantanen, Tyson Jost and Valeri Nichushkin also scored for Colorado — which has outscored the opposition 23-6 in its last four games, including 11-1 against the Wild.
“We were trying to pick up where we left off the other night,” Landeskog said. “We wanted to have the same kind of start, which we did, came out and scored a couple in the first and keep going in the second.”
The Wild didn’t get their first shot until 8:24 into the game. Colorado scored its second goal before Minnesota got its second shot. The Wild managed to close the gap on shots before the first intermission after getting seven on its first power-play chance. But Grubauer was up to the task.
Minnesota was able to use its strong power-play presence to break Colorado’s streak of 17 straight games of allowing less than 30 shots.
“I thought he was great tonight,” Bednar said of Grubauer. “Their power play early in the game, you can tell Minny came out with a real hunger at the start of the game. They had a power play in the first period and it just kind of showed how sharp he was going to be because they were dangerous. They kept us hemmed in and they were shooting the puck from a bunch of different angles with traffic.”
Avalanche acquire a goalie
Joining the team for its upcoming two-game road trip in Arizona will be goalie Jonas Johansson, who the Avs acquired Saturday from the Buffalo Sabres. Johansson, 25, is winless in six starts (0-5-1) for the NHL-worst Sabres.
The matchups against the Coyotes will be played on back-to-back nights starting Monday. There is a possibility that the newcomer could slot in for one of those games. But a decision has yet to be made.
“We’ll get him here first and then make a decision on what our plan is for him,” Bednar said. “Our guys have scouted him and seen him play, mostly in the American league in years past. He’s been on a steady progression and getting better.”
Goalie Adam Werner backed Grubauer up Saturday. Hunter Miska, who has been the backup for the majority of the season since an injury to goalie Pavel Francouz, was sent down to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.