Colorado displayed a full team effort to earn two points against the highly skilled Boston Bruins.
The Colorado Avalanche played a full 60 and then some to earn two points in the 4-3 shootout win over the Boston Bruins.
Coming into Monday's game, the Avs were the only team in the NHL with three 20-goal scorers — Nathan MacKinnon (22), Mikko Rantanen (20) and Valeri Nichushkin (20). While two of those three found the back of the net for their 21st goals respectively, the Avalanche got some depth scoring from players outside of their top scorers.
Logan O'Connor beat two Bruins defensemen to notch his sixth of the season and tally the Avs' second goal of the night 2:23 into the middle frame.
Colorado leads the league in points by defenseman with 120 — more than half coming from Cale Makar and Devon Toews. But it wasn't either of them that got on the scoresheet with a goal.
Sam Malinski, who was recalled from the Colorado Eagles on Monday morning, notched his second goal in his 15th game with the Avalanche this season.
“Just kind of trying to get pucks through down to the net. I think that in [the] first period and up until that goal, I wasn’t exactly getting [pucks] down to the net," Malinski said about his goal. "So, I was just trying to reset and get a shot down to the goalie and I think it got a lucky bounce off the guy’s pad, but yeah, it went in.”
The Avs also are the only team in the league with two 50-point producers — MacKinnon (66) and Rantanen (51). Makar (48) and Nichushkin (40) qualify in the 40-point category.
However, it was a full team effort in the battle with the Bruins, which Makar said was imperative in order to get the win.
“I felt like the whole night everybody was going. It wasn’t just individuals at certain times. I felt like every line that was out there, the chemistry was going tonight," Makar said after the win. "I think when one guy’s going and then the next guy’s going, it’s really hard to play like that, especially when teams play us like that when they’re on both [of us], whether it’s me or Toewser (Devon Toews) really quick. Give a lot of credit to our forwards tonight, I think they did a really good job on the rush.”
Alexandar Georgiev made 23 saves and gave the Avalanche confidence throughout the game with some big saves.
"I think we played good hockey offensively. Scored some big goals and overall spent a lot of time in their zone so that's really good," Georgiev said on the team's overall performance. "Their goalie was making big saves and keeping them in the game. It was a fun win."
Although the Bulgarian native referred to the game as fun, he showed some frustration after John Beecher scored the Bruins' second goal by breaking his stick. It wasn't the first time the netminder displayed emotion that way.
"I'm trying to be better with that — trying to save some sticks," the 27-year-old goaltender said. "But for me it's kind of reset after that and forget kind of let out my emotion, just keep playing my game."
The Avs needed the bounce back win after losing 8-4 to the Florida Panthers in a game head coach Jared Bednar referred to as having "everything" in it. He used the same reference but in a different context about his team's shootout win.
"I thought it was a great game from our guys. Both teams really. It was an awesome hockey game — hard fought, competitive. I really liked our game 5-on-5 — that was great," Bednar said. "And penalty kill — outstanding, power play generated some great chances. Obviously their goalie made some big saves as did ours. I thought that game had a little bit of everything. Start to finish that's probably one of our most complete games of the year — just the way we played, competed, took care of the puck. It was a really good hockey game."
Bruins forward Brad Marchand scored two goals but acknowledged the Avs' strength to power through to earn the two points.
"They are a good team, and we competed hard. Unfortunately we couldn't get that second point. Had a couple opportunities of scoring on the power play in overtime ...," Marchand said after the game. "They're just a dominate power play. They have so many different weapons out there and they move the puck extremely well. Thought we did a great job killing them off and getting to overtime."
The Avalanche face another tough matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday. Bednar said Josh Manson was out with a lower-body injury and it's unknown if he'll go or Malinski will stay with the team to slot in.