Winners of three straight games for the first time this season, the suddenly hot Avalanche have seemingly found their stride.
Colorado (7-5-1) went into Vancouver and escaped with a 4-2 victory despite trailing by a goal early in the third period. After a disappointing start to the year for the team and basically all of its star players, the Avs find themselves riding a number of hot streaks and are accumulating goals at a rapid pace.
And the numbers prove that.
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Deen’s List
3 — Power-play goals against the league’s worst penalty-killing unit in the NHL. The Avalanche have 10 power-play tallies all season and six have come during the three-game winning streak. They happened to score four of those against Vancouver. Sometimes you need a slump buster and the Canucks have given the Avs a chance to build up some confidence on the man advantage.
3.54 — Goals-per-game for the Avs after its four-goal outburst against the Canucks. It’s the third-best in the NHL behind the Edmonton Oilers (4.0) and Florida Panthers (3.88)
4 — Different goal scorers for Colorado. The Avs have had 11 players find the back of the net during their three-game winning streak, where they’ve outscored the opposition 17-5. All without superstar center Nathan MacKinnon.
5 — Avalanche skaters with double-digit point totals, which is seventh-best in the league. And two others are currently at nine (J.T. Compher, Samuel Girard). Colorado has needed to score by committee because of injuries, COVID and suspensions dismantling their top stars throughout the first 13 games.
6 — Victories for goaltender Darcy Kuemper in his last eight starts. He has also started all three games of the Avs’ current winning streak. The team’s big offseason acquisition struggled in his first few appearances but has caught fire since. He’s 6-2-0 in his last eight games with a .927 save percentage.
7 — Consecutive games with a point for centerman Nazem Kadri. The 31-year-old had a goal and two assists to bring his team-leading total to 17 points in just 13 games. Kadri’s point streak is tied for the second-longest of his career, which he also accomplished with Toronto in 2013. His five consecutive games with an assist is a career-high. Kadri is already more than halfway to the 32 points he had in 56 regular-season games in 2021. Not bad for a contract year.
11 — Goals from defensemen this season. The game-winning goal on Wednesday was scored by Cale Makar, his third of the year. The Avs have scored 46 goals so far and 23.9 percent have come from blueliners, which is the largest percentage in the NHL.
17 — Goals scored during the three-game winning streak. Star forward Mikko Rantanen leads the way with three. Gabriel Landeskog, Logan O’Connor, Devon Toews and Kadri have each scored twice.
32 — Saves for Kuemper on Wednesday. The Avs had an early 8-1 shot advantage but were outshot 26-11 during the middle portion of the game and outscored 2-0 in the process. Kuemper has stopped 81-of-86 shots during the winning streak (.942 save percentage).
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Aarif Deen is our Colorado Avalanche beat reporter. He covers Avs games live from Ball Arena and attends practices, media availabilities and other events pertaining to the Avs on the daily beat. He is also a co-host of Hockey Mountain High: Your go-to Avalanche Podcast. Deen joined Mile High Sports upon completion of his bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in business administration from the University of Michigan – Dearborn. Before Mile High Sports, Deen worked for the Michigan Wolverines Athletics Department as the assistant sports information director.
Follow him on Twitter @runwriteAarif
