Colorado kept its positive momentum going to earn two points against the Anaheim Ducks.
The confidence and energy of the Colorado Avalanche carried over from the victory against the Seattle Kraken showed in the 8-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks Wednesday night at Ball Arena.
Valeri Nichushkin scored two goals and the Avalanche's bottom six contributed four goals to the scoresheet. Joel Kiviranta had three points, Ross Colton netted his fifth of the season and Logan O'Connor had two assists.
"Good energy, really paying attention to the checking details and then they're up and they're relentless with their puck pursuit," head coach Jared Bednar said about his bottom six.
The turnaround of the team was initiated by the 8-2 loss against the St. Louis Blues at Ball Arena on Saturday night — which created some momentum going into the Seattle Kraken game on Monday.
"The more you're doing better as a team, everybody's going to keep boosting confidence and morale's going to stay high," Cale Makar said.
Andrew Cogliano scored at 13:34 into the third period after missing the game against the Kraken due to injury. He recognized the importance of this win to continue the momentum of the team.
"We set the tempo of the game ... seemed like we had a lot of zone time," Cogliano said after the win. "They're a good third period team and we came out and dominated in the third and took over. That's a big win for us. They've been playing well. That's a good team. Two big wins for us, get a couple of days before going into a tough building in Dallas."
Consistency has been a continuing issue for the Avs so far this season but the dedication the team showed against Anaheim is promising moving forward.
"A lot of guys are buying in and even from the beginning the season so I think for our group right now we can't get too high and we can't get too low here," Makar said. "We've got to keep learning and as long as we keep learning we're gonna get better every day."
Bednar spoke about allowing his players to prove themselves and that's what they did at Ball Arena Wednesday night. Samuel Girard, who was scratched last game, scored the first goal of the night and his first of the season.
"They responded great. It starts with the bounce back game in Seattle. Final 40 minutes or so was probably the best we've played all year," Bednar said. "Just with those details making it harder for teams to move, trying to take away time and space. We continued that in the first period tonight. Execution — with the better support, more talk, better details — execution goes up, the speed of our game goes up."
Keeping that energy going is imperative for the Avalanche to beat the Dallas Stars — who are currently three points ahead of the Avs in the Central Division — at American Airlines Center on Saturday.