DENVER — The Avalanche didn’t get all their injured forwards back. But just by adding Artturi Lehkonen into the lineup for his season debut on Tuesday, things fell more into place.
The result: A 6-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken at Ball Arena, five assists for Nathan MacKinnon, two assists for Cale Makar, and a crucial goal for Lehkonen along with an assist. It’s his first game in almost six months.
“He was just everywhere,” head coach Jared Bednar said of Lehkonen. “All the things that we know to be his strengths, he brought right away from the drop of the puck tonight.”
Colorado’s other goals came from Chris Wagner, Ivan Ivan, two from Mikko Rantanen, and Nikolai Kovalenko.
With the teams knotted up at 2-2, Lehkonen and the Avs found themselves on the power play after Rantanen was hauled down by Chandler Stephenson. Colorado’s top unit, which now includes Lehkonen in the net-front position, did an excellent job cycling the puck. eventually, MacKinnon fed Lehkonen in the slot and his wrist shot trickled past Philipp Grubauer after the goalie initially got a piece of it.
Rantanen added to the lead a little over two minutes later, adding a power play tally off a setup from Makar. The play was challenged for offside and later reviewed a second time after initially being called back. The Avs had the officials look at it again after arguing that the puck entry into the Kraken zone was because of a missed shot by Seattle that missed the net and rimmed around the boards.
“He worked extremely hard and was a determined player tonight,” Bednar said of Rantanen. “I liked his game right away, then he gets rewarded. He just got better and better as the game went on.”
Wagner opened the scoring early in the first period but the Kraken tied it up 10 minutes later. After their response, Ivan put home his third of the season to make it 2-1. Seattle answered back once more just 23 seconds into the second period. It was all Avalanche from there.
Justus Annunen got the start again for Colorado and made 17 saves to earn the win. The Kraken scored late after a flurry of blocks from Parker Kelly with Seattle’s goalie pulled. Following the late tally from the Kraken, Rantanen added an empty-net goal before Kovalenko scored on the power play to double up the score.
Good: Artturi Lehkonen
What a refreshing addition to the lineup. Lehkonen gave the MacKinnon and Rantanen familiarity on the other wing for the first time since Jonathan Drouin was injured on opening night.
Perhaps that’s what they both needed. Despite MacKinnon being among the league leaders in points — and now No. 1 in the league — he hadn’t yet had a full-domination type of game. The consistency he’s shown all season, extending his point streak to 13 games, has played a big part in his early season production.
“He was flying today,” Annunen said of MacKinnon, who leads the NHL with 25 points.
Lehkonen deserves credit. Not only did MacKinnon put up five points, but Rantanen, who hadn’t scored in nine games, finally found the back of the net twice. His first tally ended up as the game-winner.
Before Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal, he was out there with Joel Kiviranta doing a masterful job killing a penalty when it was 2-2.
Welcome back, Artturi.
Good: Whoever called for the offside to be reviewed again
Excellent instincts by the Avs to remind the officials why the puck had initially entered the zone in the first place. The officials hadn’t looked back far enough in their initial review to see why the puck was even entering Colorado’s zone. Because it was a Kraken shot that didn’t touch any Avs players, it’s technically not offsides. You can enter the zone before the puck if the puck is pushed back by the defending team.
Bednar said it was a team effort to get the officials to take a second look. Video coach Brett Heimlich had quickly notified the staff on the bench that the puck was in Seattle’s zone as a result of their own doing. But Makar also played a role.
“It actually ended up being Cale mentioning it to the linesman because we were talking to the refs,” Bednar said. “And I think Cale talking to the linesman and kind of staying in their ear, getting them to back it up and look at it is what ended up being the difference.”
Bad: Injury bug strikes again
This might be the worst injury of the bunch if anything comes from it. But Makar, after posting two assists, was limited to two shifts in the second half of the game. His last shift in the second period came with 10:08 remaining. After going back to the dressing room with team doctors, Makar reappeared in the third for one shift totaling 29 seconds. After that, he remained on the bench but was skipped over in the rotation several times until a commercial break. He tried to skate through the ailment during the break but went back to the bench, spoke to team doctors, and headed to the room with the doctors again. That was the end of his night.
