Brock Nelson recorded his first hat trick with the Avalanche and first since March 19, 2022, to lift Colorado to a commanding 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.
Nelson has climbed to 27 goals on the season and has 24 in his last 36 games. Jack Drury scored the other goal for the Avs, who improved to 35-6-9 on the season and 15-4-5 on the road.
It didn’t take long for the Avs to get their offense going. And the opening goal followed. Toronto’s Jake McCabe attempted a pass from the d-zone to the other end, but Cale Makar poked it away from the intended recipient. The puck landed on Nelson’s stick, he went into the zone and fired it past goalie Joseph Woll with a clean wrist shot for his 25th of the year at 6:19.
Just over a minute later, with Colorado still pressing, Valeri Nichushkin sent a pass to Artturi Lehkonen behind the net. The winger found Nelson on the goal line near the end boards, and he shot it in off the back of Woll’s jersey, scoring his 26th at 7:31.
Colorado dominated the remainder of the first, outshooting the Leafs 17-6 and getting 14 of the period’s 19 scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The second period saw more action from the Maple Leafs. They tested Mackenzie Blackwood, but Colorado’s starting goalie was up to the task, bouncing back from two consecutive bad starts. The Avs outshot the Leafs 14-13 in the second period, and got the only goal.
Woll made a great save on MacKinnon late in the period. But on the following shift, the Joel Kiviranta, Parker Kelly, and Drury line got to work. The puck started on the stick of Sam Malinski, who moved the puck up to Kiviranta. He found his linemate Kelly, and he sent it to Drury, scoring eight of the season.
Nelson completed the hat trick with a late third-period empty-netter.
The Leafs ended Blackwood’s shutout bid with 1:02 remaining.
Good: The Perfect Response
The Avalanche’s homestand took a turn for the worse near the end of it. They won the first two in commanding fashion over the Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets. But four of the next five were losses. Most recently, they fell 7-3 Philadelphia Flyers and gave up four goals in the third.
This was the bounce-back they needed.
Colorado scored early, held the lead, continued to put chances on goal, and got big saves from Blackwood along the way. There wasn’t the same level of frustration along the way.
Bad: Bardakov’s Late Penalty
Zakhar Bardakov took an irresponsible penalty late, getting nabbed for a faceoff violation after using his glove to swat the puck with 1:35 remaining of a game Colorado was leading 4-0.
On the ensuing power play, Max Domi scored Toronto’s only goal, effectively ending what would’ve been a perfect performance for Blackwood in goal.
It may not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but those are the types of penalties that are going to make it more difficult for head coach Jared Bednar to trust Bardakov when the games matter.
