The Colorado Avalanche are enjoying a well-deserved break before they return from the holiday pause and prepare to face the Utah Hockey Club in Salt Lake City on Friday.
This four-day break is the Avalanche’s first of the season, and they are making the most of it. They are also getting back to their best, with some players returning to the lineup and their goaltending tandem of Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood looking solid.
“They’re just giving us a chance to find our legs sometimes, which is great,” said coach Jared Bednar. “But we’re still an evolving team. I don’t want to say everything’s fixed. It’s not. We have more to do.”
The Avalanche went into the break after beating the Seattle Kraken 5-2 on Sunday. Colorado came from behind after being down 2-1, scoring 11 seconds after falling behind and finishing with four unanswered goals.
The Avalanche have won three straight games and seven of their last nine, moving into third place in the Central Division. Many players are playing well, including Joel Kiviranta, who scored his first career regular-season hat trick.
Valeri Nichushkin scored in his fourth straight game, Cale Makar had three points, and Mikko Rantanen extended his point streak to nine games, which is a season-high. His career best is 14 games.
The team’s power play has also been effective, scoring four goals in the past three games.
“I think for us right now, we have that attack mentality,” Makar said. “And everybody’s shooting, everybody’s working (the puck) around, there’s nobody just holding on to it. So when guys do that, and guys feel spots, it’s really fun to be out there.”
Utah, on the other hand, is wrapping up a three-game homestand and looking to bounce back from a 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday. Despite the loss, Utah had a strong third period and almost completed a comeback.
“I’m proud of the effort of the guys,” said coach Andre Tourigny. “I’m proud of the pushback we had because we all talk about the second period, which is totally true and fair, but in the third period we had a heck of a pushback.
The guys never quit, and they gave their all. They had that passion until the end, so that was great to see the team react that way.”
The loss ended Utah’s eight-game points streak (6-0-2), which had helped them climb to just two points outside a playoff spot.
Like the Avalanche, Utah also has players who are playing well. Barrett Hayton has scored in two straight games, Clayton Keller is on a five-game point streak with four goals and six assists, and Logan Cooley had a five-game streak ended by the Stars.
Utah’s goal now is to keep up their strong play, push for a playoff spot, and end their long playoff drought dating back to their time in Phoenix.
“We have to understand game management,” forward Nick Bjugstad told the Salt Lake Tribune. “We’ve got to learn, we’ve got to move on. I think this team has a lot of upside, so we want to fulfill that.”
