The Avalanche showcased its most complete performance of the young season Thursday night in a 7-1 home victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
Colorado’s scoring onslaught produced a season-high seven goals from Valeri Nichushkin, Gabe Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, Logan O’Connor, Darren Helm, Devon Toews and J.T Compher. Goalie Darcy Kuemper carried a shutout into the third period and finished with 22 saves.
“That was huge for us,” Toews said. “We were on tonight and played well.”
The team didn’t escape completely unscathed, however. Defenseman Bo Byram left in the first period after taking an apparent elbow to the head and he did not return. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar did not have a status update following the game and said Byram would be re-evaluated in the morning.
Colorado (5-5-1) hosts the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night. The Avalanche has won back-to-back games just once so far this season. But its Thursday performance suggests positive momentum is building despite the multi-week injury absence of star forward Nathan MacKinnon.
“The picture should be getting clearer and clearer for our players that this is the way we have to play in order to have success. I think they’re buying into that,” Bednar said. “Getting a 7-1 win and playing the right way, with the right habits, and sustaining it for the better part of 60 minutes is really important.”
Nichushkin scored his first goal of the year in his return from a nearly month-long absence (undisclosed injury). The Russian got rewarded crashing the net following a Nazem Kadri power-play shot attempt and the Avs went ahead just three minutes into the game. Their goals kept coming.
Colorado extended the lead moments later when defenseman Cale Makar — in his first game back from an upper-body injury — lasered the puck to Landeskog in the corner for an easy scoring chance. Then Byram forced a turnover in the Vancouver zone and Rantanen capitalized with a rocket past Canucks’ goaltender Jaroslav Halak. The Avs led 3-0 with 9:50 left in the opening period.
Colorado’s puck dominance prevented Vancouver from scoring chances. The Canucks didn’t record a shot on goal over the first 10 minutes of play.
The Avs continued to pour it on in the second period. O’Connor cashed in a feed from defenseman Sam Girard and later set up Helm for a shorthanded goal. A Toews slapper from near the blue line provided Colorado a 6-0 advantage to close the second.
Kuemper allowed his first goal of the night early in the third period on a shot from Canucks’ winger Nils Hoglander (unassisted). But Compher brought the Ball Arena crowd back to its feet with a rebound goal to close the game.
