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Coach Jared Bednar was not happy after a Tuesday loss on Long Island. He said it was go time right now or the Avs were going to flirt with falling out of a playoff position.
Bednar’s team responded with its best period of the season Friday night before cruising to a 5-0 victory against the St. Louis Blues at Ball Arena. Jonathan Drouin scored twice, Martin Necas got his first in an Avalanche uniform and Mackenzie Blackwood made 19 saves in the win.
Colorado opened the day just five points back of the Dallas Stars for second place in the Central Division, but also only four points clear of the first team on the outside of the top eight in the Western Conference, the Vancouver Canucks, who also have two games in hand.
The Avalanche blitzed the Blues in the opening 20 minutes, racing to a four-goal lead. The final carnage from the Avs after one period: four goals (most in a first period this season), 21 shots on goal (most in any period this year) and 36 shot attempts (tied for most in a period this season).
Drouin opened the scoring on a play that featured three straight puck touches while it was not on the ice. Juuso Parssinen tipped a shot from Keaton Middleton over the Blues’ net. Parssinen went behind the cage and backhanded the puck out of the air after it bounced off the glass and the ice and Drouin swatted his “pass” into the net at 4:57 of the first.
Necas made it a 2-0 lead at 7:39. Artturi Lehkonen won an offensive faceoff too cleanly back into the neutral zone. Devon Toews scooped it up and gave it to Necas. The former Hurricanes forward has already shown his ability to weave through defenders in open ice, but this time four Blues players had a good view of him skating right down the middle of the zone and snapping a shot past the goalie.
The Avs didn’t need a lot of good fortune in the first period, but the Blues offered some. Colorado scored on both power-play opportunities to double the lead.
Drouin had the first one after a St. Louis clearing attempt ended up on his stick in the right circle. Cale Makar added the fourth tally of the period with a wrist shot from near the top of the zone through traffic.
It was a bit of a sleep affair over the final 40 minutes. The Avs lost some of the killer instinct and became more passive, looking for pretty plays instead of simple shots against a beleaguered Blues squad.
Joel Kiviranta did add another goal in the third period with a snapshot from the high slot — the second of the night for the Avs that resulted in a Blues player putting it on their sticks in a dangerous position.
It was a bounce-back game for Blackwood as well. After a scorching start to his Colorado tenure, Blackwood had hit a bit of a rough patch.
Blackwood allowed two goals or fewer in each of his first 12 games for the Avs, but the past five outings all included three or four goals against and a sub-.900 save percentage.
He had a 44-save shutout earlier in the year for his former team, the San Jose Sharks, against his other old club, the New Jersey Devils.
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