The Avalanche are having a ball at Ball Arena.
Fourteen of 18 skaters recorded a point as Colorado scored seven times in a span of 18:46 to continue its scoring dominance at Ball Arena with a 7-3 rout over the San Jose Sharks in Game 1 on Tuesday.
The Avs (4-3) have now scored 15 times in its last two home games. They host the Sharks in the Game 2 finale Thursday.
“Maybe it’s the altitude, I don’t know,” Mikko Rantanen said of the two consecutive blowout wins at home. “Maybe the road team is sucking wind too much. But let’s keep that going.”
Rantanen extended his career-high goal-scoring streak to six games thanks to a feed on the power play from superstar Nathan MacKinnon. Rantanen’s league-leading sixth of the season was the third goal in a 3:06 span from the Avalanche to close out the first period.
“Playing with Landy and Nate is a great pleasure for me,” Rantanen said of his strong start, where he has scored in every game since the season opener. “I try to work as hard as I can and sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get rewarded. It’s been good for now but I just have to keep going.”
The other Avalanche goals came from Brandon Saad (two), Joonas Donskoi, Valeri Nichushkin, Sam Girard and Devon Toews.
Nichushkin’s goal, which came while shorthanded, was the eventual game-winning tally. And the goal from Girard just over four minutes later chased Sharks goalie Martin Jones.
Colorado had struggled to score without the power play, producing just eight even-strength goals. But five of its seven goals came at even-strength on Tuesday.
Each of the four lines and all three defensive units pitched in on the scoring outburst.
“All four lines were ready to skate,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We were tenacious on pucks. I thought we were stronger on pucks in the offensive zone, moving our feet whenever we were touching it. We got some nice performances from our guys.”
Bednar said his priority was to get the second line of Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky and Saad going. The trio have had a slow start as a unit. And Saad’s two-goal performance, his first multi-goal game with the Avalanche, was a gigantic step towards that goal. Kadri and Burakovsky combined for three assists.
“I thought they were great,” Bednar said. “I wanted them to make sure they were going out and outworking their opponent. They did it at times in the first six games but they didn’t do it all the time. These are three veteran guys with a lot of speed, skill, size and strength.”
Avs goalie Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves, including 14 in the third. Grubauer has started all four of Colorado’s victories this season.
Footnotes: Defensemen Erik Johnson and Ryan Graves were reinserted into the lineup in place of Conor Timmins and Greg Pateryn. The latter was waived by the Avalanche on Monday, cleared Tuesday, and will remain with the team. … Bo Byram was paired with Girard on the second pair and saw time on the second power-play unit. Byram played a team-high 21:14. … Girard played his 227th conseuctive game, passing the late Karlis Skrastins for the second-longest ironman streak by an Avalanche defenseman (Martin Skoula, 285). … MacKinnon recorded a shot in the first period to tie Avs legend Joe Sakic for most consecutive games with a shot on goal (227). … Forward Kiefer Sherwood made his season debut in place of Matt Calvert, who missed the game with an injury. Sherwood recorded an assist. … Bednar said that goalie Pavel Francouz is still injured and will not be back for the foreseeable future.
