In a season of peaks and valleys to this point, a raucous third-period rally earlier this week might have sparked another surge for the Colorado Avalanche.
The Avs used a dominant first period and some strong goaltending in the middle frame Wednesday night to dispatch the Buffalo Sabres, 5-1, in Erik Johnson’s emotional return to Ball Arena.
“No wins are easy,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s not just about winning for me. I always say I’m not going to judge our team just on the results. It’s about how we play and our conscience and are we going to play the right way and develop the habits we need to win at the most important time?
“I thought we made a big step in the right direction over the last two games and we got rewarded for it.”
Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists for the second consecutive game. Valeri Nichushkin had maybe his best game of the season with two goals. Sam Malinski continued to make a strong impression in his rookie season with his first goal and an assist.
There was a stretch of rough play in the second period, but backup goalie Ivan Prosvetov continued his string of strong performances to keep the Sabres at bay before the Avs put this one way in the third.
The Avalanche began this game with one of its best 18-minute stretches of the season. Rantanen, fresh off breaking a nine-game goalless streak and a public spat with a teammate’s father after a 6-5 comeback win Monday against Calgary, opened the scoring for the Avs.
Nathan MacKinnon carried the puck into the zone, dropped it for Rantanen and flattened Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton in front of the net. Rantanen used the extra space to score on a wraparound shot at 5:25.
Nichushkin had several great chances in this game, most created by him skating around and through defenders. The first goal he scored, midway through the first, was a considerably shorter distance traveled. Fredrik Olofsson nearly deposited the rebound of a Rantanen shot, but missed wide.
Nichushkin was knocked to the ice during the ensuing melee, but stood up and found the puck at his feet for an easy one and a two-goal lead.
“When guys like Mikko and Val get skating, they are impossible to defend,” Bednar said. “Val’s start to the game was insane. He gets two partial breakaways charging through the middle of the ice. He probably could have had four goals in the first eight minutes and eventually he gets rewarded for his work.”
Miles Wood made it a 3-0 game less than 90 seconds later. Malinski killed a rush led by Johnson, Wood collected the loose puck to kickstart a 2-on-1 and he beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen with a shot from inside the right circle.
This game was into the 19th minute of the opening period and the Sabres had one shot on goal. A Rasmus Dahlin shot from the high slot was the second, and Zach Benson’s rebound goal with 1:22 left was the third.
The second period was the reverse — Buffalo outshot Colorado 15-3, though the Avs had two or three Grade-A chances that missed the net and a couple of plays where someone overpassed in a prime scoring area.
Malinski’s first NHL goal on a one-timer from the left circle and Nichuskin’s second of the night on a great tic-tac-toe play ended any doubt. It was Nichuskin’s 100th NHL goal and MacKinnon’s 800th career point.
Prosvetov, getting his second start in three games after winning in relief of Alexandar Georgiev in between, had another strong performance. Colorado’s brain trust made several additions during the offseason, but scooping up Prosvetov off waivers near the end of training camp to be the backup goalie has proven to be a deft maneuver.
“I was ready for it,” Prosvetov said of Buffalo’s second-period flurry. “There’s no easy games in pro hockey. I knew they were going to push back and I had to be there. My teammates were there for me in the first and I was there for them in the second.”
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