{"id":472738,"date":"2026-02-26T09:25:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/472738\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:25:15","slug":"postgame-avs-kick-off-game-one-of-five-in-seven-days-with-4-2-win-over-utah-mammoth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/472738\/","title":{"rendered":"POSTGAME: Avs kick off game one of five in seven days with 4-2 win over Utah Mammoth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to the NHL<\/a> regular season, friends! As fun as the Olympics<\/a> were to watch (oh my gosh, what a tournament), I\u2019m sure glad to be back to the grind\u2026 And what a grind it\u2019s set up to be. Straight out of the Olympic break, the Avs<\/a> kicked off the first of five games in seven days at the Delta Center against the Utah Mammoth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple of housekeeping notes made ahead of this one, the largest of which is that Brett Kulak is officially an Av! Kulak was acquired in a trade that happened ahead of practice on Tuesday, the same trade that sent long-tenured Avs defenseman Samuel Girard<\/a> to the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>, along with a 2028 second-round pick in the NHL Entry Draft.<\/p>\n

Kulak debuted on the third pair with Sam Malinski<\/a>, but the expectation is that he can be flexible on the left side of all three pairings as the rest of the season progresses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> did not dress for tonight\u2019s game, but the other three players who appeared in the gold medal match in Milan played, including Brock Nelson<\/a>, who announced his playing status before puck drop today.<\/p>\n

Scott Wedgewood<\/a> got the nod in net tonight, starting opposite Utah Mammoth goaltender Karel Vejmelka, who is fresh off a trip to Milan to represent Team Czechia in the Olympics. Wedgewood earned his 21st win of the season.<\/p>\n

The first period saw many notable chances, including a goal<\/a> from gold-medal winner Brock Nelson, but ultimately, a goaltender interference challenge nullified it<\/a>, and the period ended without either team on the board.<\/p>\n

The second period, though\u2026 *chef\u2019s kiss*. All six goals scored in this game were tallied in the middle frame.<\/p>\n

Parker Kelly<\/a> got the scoring started with an incredible individual effort through the offensive zone. From the transition to the goal itself, perfect stuff from the Avs\u2019 fourth-line regular, who is having a career season this year.<\/p>\n

Victor Olofsson<\/a>, who hasn\u2019t scored since January 23rd against the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, made it 2-0 with a snipe in the slot. Another impactful effort from Kelly to recover the puck at the blue line, and he created a tic-tac-toe masterpiece with Sam Malinski and Olofsson to get an edge on their lead.<\/p>\n

Utah responds just over a minute later with a power play<\/a> goal courtesy of Dylan Guenther, a jab to the second-best penalty kill<\/a> in the league.<\/p>\n

Who else but Brock Nelson to pick up a goal? A heck of a response for the Olympic gold medalist, not only to Guenther\u2019s goal, but to get on the board himself after having a goal taken off in the first period.<\/p>\n

Guenther found another goal for Utah, his second of the night, scored exactly a minute after Nelson\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

But\u2026 if Guenther\u2019s allowed to score power play goals, so is Martin Necas<\/a>, who tallied a snipe from the left circle on the man advantage to cap off the scoring for this game.<\/p>\n

No one was able to finish on any of their opportunities in the third period, so this one ends 4-2, a wicked way to come out of the Olympic break for the best team in the league.<\/p>\n

Special teams came out to PLAY<\/p>\n

Aside from the first Guenther goal, the Avs\u2019 special teams<\/a> were on it tonight. 4\/5 on the penalty kill on any given night is something I can look at on any given stat sheet at the end of the night and be pleasantly satisfied with.<\/p>\n

Also\u2026 I know it\u2019s probably dramatic, but I\u2019m way too excited about the Avs being 1\/3 on the power play since the regular season resumed.<\/p>\n

In all seriousness, there are a few things you could dissect from this.<\/p>\n

First off, a reminder that Nathan MacKinnon was not in the lineup tonight.<\/p>\n

And second\u2026 How freaking good did Martin Necas look in his place?<\/p>\n

Coach Bednar<\/a> was quick to nip that line of thought in the bud tonight when asked about it, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s kind of [MacKinnon\u2019s] spot\u201d in response to a postgame<\/a> question about entertaining Necas in that spot instead, but it\u2019s a valid question. Martin Necas scored a few different times in that exact spot for Team Czechia, which makes you wonder just how effective he might be there if given a real shot. MacKinnon\u2019s proven to be effective outside of that spot, so what\u2019s the harm in giving it an actual, meaningful chance?<\/p>\n

Mandatory special teams check-in:<\/p>\n

Power play: 15.4% (32nd)<\/p>\n

Penalty kill: 84.5 (2nd)<\/p>\n

Avs postgame pod<\/p>\n

Upcoming schedule:<\/p>\n

As previously mentioned, this is the first of five games in seven days for the Avs.<\/p>\n

They head right back to Denver<\/a> on Thursday night to host Olympic gold medalist Quinn Hughes<\/a> and the Minnesota Wild<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No practice on Friday for the group, nor will there be a morning skate ahead of Saturday\u2019s game against the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> at 4:00 pm MT.<\/p>\n

They cap this week-long stretch with a back-to-back series in Southern California, playing the Los Angeles Kings<\/a> on Monday, March 2nd, before driving north on Tuesday to play the Anaheim Ducks<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to the NHL regular season, friends! As fun as the Olympics were to watch (oh my…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,192,144,5277,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-472738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-avalanche","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche","11":"tag-coloradoavalanche","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116136216029149053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}