DENVER — Jared Bednar wanted the Avalanche to treat the last five games before the 4 Nations Faceoff like it’s the playoffs. The team got the memo.
Colorado stormed out of the gate with four first-period goals on Friday on its way to a 5-0 drubbing of its divisional rival St. Louis Blues at Ball Arena. Jonathan Drouin scored twice, Martin Necas got his first in an Avalanche uniform, and Cale Makar and Joel Kiviranta also scored for the Avs, who reached the 30-win mark.
One of Drouin’s goals and Makar’s tally both came on the power play. The Avs outshot St. Louis 21-6 through 20 minutes and 30-14 at the second intermission.
It was domination from start to finish and the perfect home game to have after playing well on the road but not getting the results.
“There weren’t any gaps in our game,” Bednar said. “All four lines going again, so no passengers and really, no lapses.”
The scoring started less than five minutes in. Playing on the second line with Juuso Parssinen and Casey Mittelstadt, Drouin scored his fifth of the season by swiping a puck out of mid-air. He got to the front of the net and swatted at it as it was coming down to beat goalie Joel Hofer.
Less than three minutes later, Necas got on the board. He used his speed to burst through the neutral zone and get a clean entry into St. Louis’ end while pushing the defensemen back before firing a wrister past the goalie. His 17th of the season and 60th point put the Avs up 2-0.
“big game, big win for us, and ready to build on it,” Necas said.
Necas has five points in his first four Avalanche games playing exclusively on the top line and No. 1 power-play unit.
“He’s got great offensive instincts,” Bednar said of Necas. “He’s going to be able to contribute on a nightly basis if he’s playing well and their line’s playing well. If they’re doing the right things, they’re going to find opportunities.”
The power play then took over. First, it was Drouin finishing from the circle just as the puck squirted out to him. Then, Makar picked his corner with a wrister from the blue line to make it 4-0.
Total domination.
The Avs carried that momentum all the way through. They outshot the Blues 36-19 while Mackenzie Blackwood earned his first shutout in an Avalanche uniform and second of the season.
Good: Power Play Finds It’s Groove
If you got a chance to catch Bednar’s practice presser on Thursday, you heard him talk about the power play getting a much-needed refresh. It wasn’t just that Mikko Rantanen was being replaced by Necas. It’s that Necas gives the top unit another right-shot forward — a rarity in recent years outside of Nathan MacKinnon.
Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, Ross Colton, Andre Burakovsky, and Drouin all shoot left. Off the top of my head, J.T. Compher was the last righty who got some time on the top PP unit.
But anyway, Necas is a righty who, like MacKinnon, is an excellent puck-possession player and arguably as good a skater. Seeing the two of them both move around on that right side and be as active as they were is a nice touch. The top unit scored twice in the first period and finished 2-for-4.
Bad: Joel Hofer
It’s been a while since there wasn’t one specific part of the Avs game that needed to be highlighted in this section. So instead, let’s pick on the Blues goalie.
Did he get much support? Not really. But my goodness was he leaky. After letting in four goals in the first, Hofer couldn’t control a Necas shot off the rush early in the second period and later almost fumbled another save. He did make a nice save on a MacKinnon break on the backhand but was otherwise uninspiring.
He’s a solid puck handler, though. I’ll give him that.
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