The definition of scoring depth was on display Tuesday night at Ball Arena, where 14 of 18 Avalanche skaters had a point or more in the club’s second consecutive dismantling of a visiting opponent.
On Jan. 13, the last time the Avs played at home, they pummeled the St. Louis Blues by seven goals. On Tuesday, Colorado pounded the San Jose Sharks 7-3 — with all four lines contributing a goal.
The Avs’ positive goal-differential in the last two home games: 15-4.
“Maybe it’s the altitude, I don’t know. Maybe the road team is sucking wind too much,” Mikko Rantanen said. “But let’s keep that going.”
The Avs’ struggling second line got two goals from left winger Brandon Saad. Joonas Donskoi got one from the third line and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare from the fourth. Third-line winger Valeri Nichushkin also scored on a short-handed breakaway, and Devon Toews represented the Avs defensemen in the scoring column.
The worldly top line featuring electrifying center Nathan MacKinnon and All-Star wingers Gabe Landeskog and Rantanen contributed a power-play goal from Rantanen. But the line otherwise gladly took a back seat for a team looking for depth scoring after a 3-3 start.
“All four lines were ready to skate. We were tenacious on pucks. I thought we were stronger on pucks in the offensive zone, moving our feet whenever we were touching it,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We got some nice performances from our guys.”
Colorado (4-3) overcame a 1-0 deficit by scoring three times within a span of 3:06 at the end of the first period and tacked on four second-period goals to take a commanding 7-2 lead into the second intermission.
Rantanen’s goal closed out a dominating last half of the first period, and it was historic. He extended his career-high goals streak to six games — the longest Avalanche goals streak since MacKinnon in 2018 and the longest active streak in the NHL. With a goal in Thursday’s rematch with the Sharks, Rantanen would tie Milan Hejduk and Joe Sakic for the club record. Sakic scored in seven straight games twice.
Rantanen has scored in every game besides the season opener.
“I’m feeling healthy and feeling good on the ice,” Rantanen said. “Obviously, playing with Landy and Nate is a big pleasure for me. I just try to work as hard as I can and do the right thing with the puck and sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get rewarded. But it’s been good.”
Saad scored Colorado’s second and seventh goals. His first one game off a worldly assist from defenseman Cale Makar, who had three helpers on the night. Saad, standing in front of the crease, received the puck on his tape and backhanded it home.
“He kind of surprised me with that pass in front but I was just waiting, Saad said of Makar. “He’s a high-end player that can make those plays.
Footnotes. Rookie defenseman Bo Byram, 19, logged a team-high 21:14. … MacKinnon’s first shot of the game tied Sakic for the most consecutive-shot games in club history. Both produced a shot in 227 straight games. Sakic did it from Nov. 17, 1995, to Jan. 12, 1999. MacKinnon’s streak started on Oct. 14, 2017, at Dallas. … Sam Girard played in his 227th consecutive regular-season game, passing Karlis Skrastins for the second-longest ironman streak by an Avalanche defenseman. Martin Skoula holds the record by playing in 285 consecutive games. … Johnson and Ryan Graves returned to the lineup as the third defensive pairing. Johnson has played in just one of six games after sitting out all of training camp because of COVID-19 protocol. Graves was a healthy scratch Sunday at Anaheim. … Recently acquired defenseman Greg Pateryn was placed on waivers Monday. He cleared Tuesday and will now be eligible to go back and forth from the taxi squad or minors as waiver-exempt. He was placed on the taxi squad Tuesday afternoon. … Landeskog needs one goal to tie Peter Forsberg (202) for the third-most goals in club history.
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