Avаlаncһe Gаіn Steаm іn tһe Centrаl Dіvіѕіon Followіng Rout іn Mіnneѕotа

So far so good for the Avalanche’s first two tests.

So far so good for the Avalanche’s first two tests.

New Year’s Eve’s matchup against Winnipeg began a stretch of 12 games of which six are against the Jets, the Minnesota Wild, and the Dallas Stars — the three teams sitting ahead of Colorado in the Central Division.

The Avs were victorious against Winnipeg in that first game and followed it up with a one-sided 6-1 victory over the very injured Wild on Thursday. John Hynes’ club was without its top-three defensemen Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, and Brock Faber. And they are still missing superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov.

It’s the 18th straight game where the Avs have not lost two in a row. They have a 13-4-1 record in that span and continue to climb in the standings. In November, the Central Division seemed to be out of reach. But if the Avalanche continue playing this way, especially with four more big games ahead of them, they’ll find themselves right in the thick of things with a lot of hockey left before the playoffs.

Logan O’Connor, Ross Colton, Mikko Rantanen, Parker Kelly, Artturi Lehkonen, and Nathan MacKinnon made up the six different goal-scorers for Colorado. O’Connor, Rantanen, and MacKinnon each also recorded an assist to finish with two points. Josh Manson and Jonathan Drouin had two helpers.

O’Connor opened the scoring off a slick shot to beat goalie Filip Gustavsson. After Colton received a gift of a goal — a mishandled play by Minnesota’s Declan Chisolm, the Wild scored late in the first to get back within reach.

By the time the game was nearly halfway through, the Wild had just nine shots on goal but four of them were golden opportunities. As has been the case time and time again over the past month, Mackenzie Blackwood was up to the task and saved every single one.

Rantanen eventually made it 3-1 in what felt like the goal that put the game away. Colorado came out for the third period with a purpose and the rest was history.

Blackwood made 24 saves, including 13 in the third period to improve to 8-1-1 with the Avs.

Good: Killer instinct

You don’t always get an opportunity to face a team missing its top three defensemen and Hart Trophy superstar forward all at the same time. But that was the case and Colorado was sure to take advantage of it.

It’s one thing to win the game, it’s another to do it this way. The Avs scored the first goal, and held the lead until the end, never letting the game get away from them. Outside of Minnesota’s late first-period tally, Colorado controlled play.

The Wild couldn’t generate much offensively and in the end, the big minutes that depth guys had to play caught up to them. The Avs had that killer instinct in the third period instead of sitting back and doubled their goal totals in just over four minutes of play. The goals were coming from all over the lineup, too.

Oh, and you know what makes this type of game possible? Having a goalie that could quietly make those big saves when it’s 2-1. Job well done by Blackwood.

Bad: Power play

Colorado couldn’t score on six minutes of PP time against a team that was missing its top two penalty-killers. Without Brodin and Faber, Minnesota had to rely on Jake Middleton and Zach Bogosian as its top pair.

It’s hard to say what the team needs to do to fix its PP issues. Having Valeri Nichushkin back will help but there’s got to be something more to this rut. Let’s just hope they figure things out at the right time before the regular season starts to wind down.

At least they scored a shorthanded goal.