DENVER — Cale Makar returned and the Avalanche won a game. So perhaps he’s not the problem.
Makar joked last month that the team often loses when he returns from an injury absence. But his footprint was all over Friday’s 3-1 victory, where the Avs stymied the Arizona Coyotes’ offense to bounce back from a loss two nights prior. Makar had a goal and two assists, giving him 19 points in his last nine games. He also scored the game-winning goal.
“I don’t know if it’s me individually, ” think it’s just guys in general,” Makar said of his offensive surge.
Contrary to what he believes, Makar has been paramount in Colorado’s offensive surge in recent weeks.
“He’s being modest. You see what he does,” head coach Jared Bednar said of his superstar defenseman, who continues to climb the scoring ranks among defensemen. “He just kind of starts taking over the game when we need one or it’s a close game and he starts to push offensively. He can make things happen on his own and for the other four guys that are on the ice.
“So him getting 19 points, it’s just him pushing to help our team have success and pushing offensively to make things happen. A lot of it starts with our back end and what they’re able to do with the puck.”
Nathan MacKinnon (goal, two assists) and J.T. Compher also scored for Colorado (42-23-6, 90 points), which trails Dallas by two points and Minnesota by one for first place in the Central Division. The Avs have a game in hand on both teams and hosts each of them next week at Ball Arena.
MacKinnon opened the scoring on the power play. Colorado finished the night 2-for-3 with the man advantage, scoring on the power play in 10 consecutive games. It’s the second-longest streak in team history. The Avs are 8-2 in those games.
“The constant has been MacK and Mikko (Rantanen) on their flanks. Two pretty good players and both those guys are playing okay, right now,” Bednar said. “So that’s what’s working. I think there are nights that we move it around and create really good chances and could get rewarded more. And there are nights where it doesn’t come easy. I didn’t think it came easy tonight, but I really liked the first power-play goal we got.”
The Coyotes tied it up before the intermission. In the second period, the final 10 minutes were the polar opposite of the opening half. The Avalanche had just three shots at the halfway mark, holding the Coyotes to six. But then Colorado took over. Arizona didn’t have a shot for the final 8:29 of the period and the Avs had nine, including a number of golden opportunities. Goalie Karel Vejmelka made several huge saves. First, he stopped Cale Makar on a vintage Makar play where he generated a scoring chance by carrying the puck and deking out nearly everyone on the ice.
Vejmelka then fended off two shorthanded opportunities. Valeri Nichushkin hit the post and then Andrew Cogliano’s attempt to beat him five-hole was stopped. Rantanen then had a high-danger chance that was also saved. Vejmelka kept the game knotted up at 1-1 entering the third period but was unable to keep the Avs off the board in the final period.
Makar fired it past him at 6:41 with several bodies screening the goalie. The Avalanche later added a power-play goal where Compher cleaned up a rebound off another point shot from Makar.
“For me, I was just trying to get pucks to the net,” Makar said. “I feel like we were struggling with doing that all night. Especially on the powerplay. We had some guys in good spots like Compher.”
In goal, Alexandar Georgiev made 17 saves in a relatively quiet night for him. His 33 wins are tied for second in the NHL, trailing only Boston’s Linus Ullmark (35).
