Blink and you might miss how incredible this Avalanche team is.
The NHL’s unstoppable force poured it on the Sharks on Wednesday at Ball Arena, romping to their 10th straight victory to extend the longest win streak in the league this season. The 6-0 thrashing was highlighted by a blitz of three goals in the span of 76 seconds, the latter two lamp-lighters coming just nine ticks apart.
But after the rout, there would be no basking by Avs head coach Jared Bednar. He’s thinking about June, not November.
“Blinders on, and we’re staying focused,” Bednar said.
Even the Colorado public address announcer, Alan Roach, couldn’t keep up with Colorado’s dominance on Wednesday.
Roach was halfway through declaring the second goal of that three-goal onslaught when Colorado scored for a third time. And Roach also didn’t have a chance to announce San Jose’s goalie switch on time, as San Jose swapped Yaroslav Askarov for Alex Nedeljkovic, only for Nedeljkovic to give up a goal on the first shot he faced.
By the time Roach got around to mentioning Nedeljkovic was in the game, it was 5-0, the Sharks were collectively hanging their heads and the home crowd was in a frenzy for a franchise that continues to play like the clear Stanley Cup favorite. Colorado had six different goal scorers on Wednesday to avenge their last defeat, back on Nov. 1 when the Avs fell 3-2 in overtime in San Jose.
“This was a key game for us,” Josh Manson said. “We know that team can come in and roll; they got the better of us in San Jose. We knew they weren’t a pushover team. We were going to have a better effort than we had on that road trip, and we found that tonight.”
Wednesday brought firepower from each of Colorado’s four lines, with 13 players with at least one point, as the Avs improved to 17-1-5 with their third straight shutout. Their 39 points are a handful of games better than the NHL’s second-best team, the Stars, while the Avs’ plus-44 goal differential is more than the second-, third-, and fourth-ranked teams in that category combined coming into Wednesday.
As so it goes for Colorado, which set a franchise record for November wins on Wednesday with 10. The Avs are the third team in NHL history to have one regulation loss or fewer through 23 games, joining the 1979-80 Flyers (lost in the Stanley Cup Final) and the 2012-13 Blackhawks (won the Stanley Cup).
“We’ve been finding ways to win games, no matter how we play,” Manson said. “Early on, especially some of those overtime losses, we scored late to tie it up and we battled. Then the road trip we just had (in Nashville and Chicago), we didn’t play our best games and they took it to us a little bit, but we found ways to win. That’s a mark of a good team and we have to keep with that mentality.”
Less than four minutes into Wednesday’s rout, Ross Colton skated by the Sharks defense and wristed the puck home to the top right shelf for a 1-0 lead. That set the tone, and San Jose hardly threatened Mackenzie Blackwood on the other end of the ice during the opening frame.
With 53 seconds left in the first, Cale Makar zipped a pass to Nathan MacKinnon, who blasted a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle. It went in on the top shelf, past a jumping Artturi Lehkonen who was screening Askarov in front of the net.
Up 2-0, Colorado stepped on the gas early in the second period, then quashed a few chances for San Jose to gain some semblance of momentum later in the frame.
Sam Malinski started the scoring assault 3 minutes, 44 seconds into the period. Then 67 seconds later, Manson tacked on a wrister to the bottom right shelf, making it 4-0 and prompting the pulling of Askarov. Nine seconds after that, Joel Kiviranta beat Nedeljkovic on an easy look in front of the net off a pass from Ivan Ivan.
The fourth-line goal nine seconds after Mason’s goal was tied for the fourth-fastest back-to-back goals in franchise history. And it was Kiviranta’s first goal of the season, coming in his return after he missed nearly six weeks due to injury.
“(Kiviranta’s) looked really good in the short amount of practice time, just the way he’s been skating,” Bednar said. “… To be able to come back and be ready like that, it says a lot.”
Up 5-0, the Avs got into penalty trouble in the latter half of the second, with Devon Toews, Gabriel Landeskog and Kiviranta all getting sent to the box. But Blackwood and the penalty-kill unit turned away all three of those chances for the Sharks to get on the scoreboard.
With just under four minutes left in the game, following a few more incredible defensive stands throughout the third to preserve the shutout, Lehkonen added insult to embarrassment with another goal off assists from MacKinnon and Martin Necas. Ball Arena then proceeded to troll the Sharks by playing “Baby Shark.”
Even up five and then six goals, the Colorado defense continue to dive in front of the net and block shots to keep the Sharks at zero.
“I freaking love that (expletive),” Blackwood said. “These guys care so much and they take pride in it, no matter what the score is. It makes me so freaking happy that those guys are like that. It makes me want to go to war for them.”
Amid the blowout, Colorado shut down San Jose’s 19-year-old phenom, Macklin Celebrini. Last year’s No. 1 overall pick entered the night with 34 points, tied for second in the league only behind MacKinnon. But the Avs neutralized him as he only had three shots.