Good & Bad: Avs Buzzing After 5-1 Victory Over Sens

Nelson netted his second of the game from a redirect on Artturi Lehkonen’s shot less than two minutes into the middle frame. Ross Colton earned his second point on the goal.

“You can tell the new guys — their confidences keep going up and up, and the chemistry in the lines is starting to get there. So it’s exciting, and hopefully we can keep rolling,” Makar said after the win.

Scott Wedgewood stopped 15 of 16 shots and the Sens got one past him with just four minutes left in the game. Linus Ullmark allowed four goals on 13 shots before he was replaced by Anton Forsberg who made 18 saves on 19 shots.

Samuel Girard was ruled out ahead of the matchup due to a lower-body injury and is listed as day-to-day. Keaton Middleton and Erik Johnson slotted in the third D-pair spot, with Sam Malinski and Ryan Lindgren in the second.

Johnson stepped up with three shots on goal and Middleton played a whopping 17:49.

This game was a testament that when the Avalanche play a nearly solid 60 minutes with superior goaltending, they are unstoppable.

Good: Top-Line Chemistry

Bednar’s shakeup of lines paid off between Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin. The duo has a chemistry that explodes when it’s ignited. They regularly stay on the ice after practice to shoot pucks and deepen that on-ice bond.

Drouin’s backpass to MacKinnon set him up perfectly to navigate through what seemed like the entire Senators team, to get off a shot past Linus Ullmark midway through the first period.

Good: Full Team Effort

Nelson, Colton, Makar and Drouin each had two points. But seven other players had one point each — MacKinnon, Kiviranta, Lehkonen, Malinksi, Martin Necas, Charlie Coyle and Valeri Nichushkin.

It is a different team than just two months ago. Almost everyone is healthy and personnel changes have impacted the team significantly.

“Number one, we’re committed to what we’re doing right now. There’s no question we understand the importance of dialing in our game down the stretch run here and getting ready for playoffs,” Bednar said about the team’s recent performance. “And number two, the players that we added at the deadline are making a huge difference. It’s skill and experience guys and with good size and ability in the middle of the ice.”

Good: Scott Wedgewood’s Exceptional Goaltending

Wedgewood was four minutes away from a career-high third shutout of the season until Cozens spoiled it for him. He only faced 16 total shots but seven of them were in the first five minutes.

“We weathered it, made some saves, got some rebounds to stick to me and settled the boys in, and then they went to work. Until that last goal, it was pure domination, and the whole game was domination,” Wedgewood said.

Bad: The First 5 Minutes of the Game

The only negative from the Avs in this matchup was a late start. They didn’t get going until about five to seven minutes in after Wedgewood stayed on his toes to keep them in the game.

It was not a surprise for the team to take a little time to rev it up as it was their second of the back-to-back. But once the engine turned over, there was no stopping the Avs train from bouncing back after the 2-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs the night before.