The Avalanche returned to Denver on a seven-game winning streak after a successful four-game road trip.
The Avalanche returned to Denver on a seven-game winning streak after a successful four-game road trip.
Colorado ended its four-game road trip with a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues — thanks to Mikko Rantanen's hat trick. The Avalanche returned to Denver on a seven-game winning streak, after earning victories in all four matchups away from home.
The 27-year-old forward netted his first at 13:24 in the opening period off a backhand pass from Nathan MacKinnon to rip it over Jordan Binnington's shoulder. His second came on the power play with less than three minutes remaining in the middle frame to tie the game at three-all. He scored the game-winner 4:15 into the third from a Valeri Nichushkin pass.
It was Rantanen's seventh career hat trick which tied Owen Nolan and Peter Forsberg for the fourth-most hat tricks in Avalanche/Nordiques history. He has two hat tricks at the Enterprise Center in his last four games played there.
"I thought at times our team was probably a little too selective on our shots, passed up on a few, got a little fancy, got a little perimeter at times which led to some of those turnovers I talked about but — Mikko wasn't one of those guys," head coach Jared Bednar said. "It felt like today when he got a chance in the house that he was going to let it go and gets rewarded for it."
The four-game stretch against tough teams was the best road trip since winning the first three of the season in opponents' buildings. The wins helped the team's confidence and the time away allowed the new players to get acquainted and acclimated with their new teammates.
"Home, we've been good all year pretty much, but on the road we've been kind of inconsistent," Rantanen said after the game. "This was a really good road trip, not easy teams to play against. St. Louis was four points out before today so they're kind of playing playoffs already to get in so tough buildings to play in to get four wins — got to be proud of the group, for sure."
Colorado earned eight points and tied the Winnipeg Jets with 93, but sit in the No. 2 spot with a slightly lower points percentage (.674%).
"Just felt like really nothing affected us. Even fluctuations in the game, I think we kind of always stayed the course, that's what good teams do," Cale Makar told Altitude TV's Katie Gaus after the win. "We built a lot on this road trip, we just got to continue to do it throughout the rest of the year."
Forward Casey Mittelstadt scored the only other goal for the Avalanche at 16:19 in the second period with an assist from Samuel Girard.
MacKinnon continued his point streak — now at 16 games, his second-longest this season.
The Avs took the day off on Wednesday but will practice on Thursday to prepare for Friday's matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Ball Arena.
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