Avalanche keeps rolling, breezes past Red Wings team on playoff bubble

Well, the Colorado Avalanche are certainly better than the mushy middle of the Eastern Conference.

The Avs kept rolling Tuesday night, breezing past the Detroit Red Wings in a 5-2 win at Ball Arena. The Red Wings are fighting for their playoff lives, and the Avalanche had relatively little trouble winning for the 11th time in 13 games (11-1-1).

That’s three straight games against East teams in the hunt for the two wild card spots, and three victories for the Avs. They didn’t dominate for long stretches like in Ottawa and Montreal, but there also wasn’t a comeback-inducing lull like at Bell Centre, either. It was a strong defensive performance, outside of a couple shaky early moments, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 21 saves in another sturdy outing.

Nathan MacKinnon led a quartet of Avs with two-point nights, including a goal at the end of a weird, bad-luck filled power play that put Colorado in front by three goals midway through the third period. MacKinnon extended his lead in the NHL scoring race to six points, moving him closer to claiming the Art Ross Trophy for the first time in his career.

MacKinnon drew a penalty by trying to slice through multiple Detroit defenders. During the man advantage, his stick broke on a one-timer and then a pass from Jonathan Drouin to him hit part of the splintered blade on the ice. He had to race back to bust up a potential breakaway.

Just when he looked gassed, the puck came to the reigning MVP and MacKinnon fired a shot into the Detroit net for his 29th goal of the season and a 4-1 lead.

Former Avs forward J.T. Compher gave the Red Wings a brief lead early in the first period with a power-play goal at 6:00. It was the eighth goal in 65 games this season for Compher, who signed a five-year, $25.5 million contract with Detroit in July 2023.

Cale Makar evened the score 44 seconds later. His shot from the left point glanced off Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, then took a hop off the ice and into the far side of the net. It was Makar’s 27th goal of the season. That’s one shy of his career high, which he set in 2021-22 en route to his first Norris Trophy. Makar is also up to 82 points for the season, which is 13 more than any other defenseman in the league.

Valeri Nichushkin was originally credited with the first Avs goal, then he definitely scored the second one. MacKinnon fed Jonathan Drouin in the slot for a shot, and Nichushkin was there to jam the rebound between the left post and Alex Lyon’s outstretched pad at 12:52 of the first.

Nichushkin now has 19 goals in just 34 games this season. He also has eight in his past 13 contests since returning from a lower-body injury, which also coincides with the beginning of this white-hot run for the Avalanche.

Devon Toews made it a 3-1 lead with the lone goal of the second period. Martin Necas teed him up on the power play, and Toews blasted one past Lyon at 4:39.

There was a momentary blip late in the third. Austin Watson scored with 3:07 left to cut Colorado’s lead to two, and the Red Wings had a flurry on the next shift, but Logan O’Connor, back from being a healthy scratch in Montreal, scored into an empty net with 2:04 remaining.

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