Colorado had goals from four different scorers in their 4-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes on the eve of Christmas Eve.
Colorado had goals from four different scorers in their 4-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes on the eve of Christmas Eve.
The Avalanche needed some scoring depth, and they got it from four different goal scorers in the 4-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes.
Colorado's defense contributed two goals — Bowen Byram scored the first goal of the game 8:37 into the first period and Josh Manson netted one in the second with an assist from Fredrik Olofsson.
Manson had four shots on goal, equal with Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon, but was the only one of the three to get rewarded.
"He (Manson) was active up in the rush as well ... we get it up to our D and then they either want to pass it or rim it back down. I'd rather see guys step and shoot and cause havoc at the net by crashing the net," head coach Jared Bednar said. "We do have a possession game mentality, which is fine, but sometimes you got to shoot it and good things happen — his goal is off the rush and getting active same as Bo (Byram), was very similar plays. We had a couple other really dangerous plays that look the same."
Byram said the team still made mistakes but the difference in the win were checks and balances — when a mistake was made, another player recovered.
"That's been a big part of our game the whole time I've played here and I know it was a lot of fun tonight to play like that — whenever you have the puck and you're driving the play," Byram said. "It makes it a lot more fun than running around and defending in the D-zone, so it was good."
As for whether or not he picked the lane for his goal — "Grip and rip it," the 22-year-old said with a laugh as he walked away.
Valeri Nichushkin got a goal which extended his point streak to seven games. MacKinnon extended his overall point streak and home point streak to 18 with an assist on that goal.
Logan O'Connor assisted on both Manson's and Olofsson's goals for his third multi-point game of the season. Olofsson registered his first multi-point game with the Avalanche.
Alexandar Georgiev was holding down a shutout until Alex Kerfoot tipped in a shot on the Coyotes power play with three minutes left in the game. The 27-year-old goaltender made 24 saves for his 17th win — the most among goalies in the league.
“Definitely huge. We’re trying to build our game and get on a little streak and play the right way, especially [against] this opponent," Georgiev said. "They’re so good and they’re close to us I think in the standings, so it was an important game for us.”
"He just looked sharp, focused, I mean, top of the crease all the time," Bednar said about his starting netminder.
Colorado plays the Coyotes again in Arizona on Wednesday night at Mullett Arena.
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