{"id":521607,"date":"2026-03-25T06:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/521607\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T06:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:38:13","slug":"necas-scores-twice-avalanche-cruise-past-penguins-for-3rd-straight-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/521607\/","title":{"rendered":"Necas scores twice, Avalanche cruise past Penguins for 3rd straight win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinakhov scored in a third consecutive game to tie it 1-1 at 8:09 with a one-timer from the point set up by Samuel Girard<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Malinski,\u00a0Necas and Parker Kelly<\/a>\u00a0later scored three goals in 1:55.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Malinski gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead at 15:24 with a wrist\u00a0shot in\u00a0off the left post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Necas made it 3-1 five seconds into a power play at 16:44 on a one-timer from the left face-off circle set up by Cale Makar<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kelly dropped to a knee for another one-timer, extending the lead to 4-1 at 17:19.<\/p>\n

Logan O’Connor<\/a> set up Kelly in his season debut and return from having hip surgery on June 6, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been a long time coming,\u201d O’Connor said. \u201cHopefully, as the games go on, feel more and more comfortable and continue to find my game more and to my identity as it goes on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Justin Brazeau<\/a> seemed to score for the Penguins at 7:38 of the second period, wrapping a rebound around Wedgewood, but the Avalanche\u00a0challenged\u00a0and it was\u00a0determined\u00a0he interfered with Wedgewood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh then had two shots on goal during a four-minute power play after Nazem Kadri<\/a> was called for high-sticking at 8:25.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pressure at the right times,\u201d Wedgewood said. \u201cWhat we give up is kind of what we\u2019re hoping to give up, right? And you\u2019ve got everyone\u2019s top-skilled guys out there, and for a length of time. We get blocks when we need them. We get saves when we need them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Necas pushed the lead to 5-1 at 17:29 on Colorado\u2019s third shot on goal of the second, a wrist shot off a rebound from Devon Toews<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rakell tapped in a pass from Sidney Crosby<\/a>\u00a0to cut it to 5-2 at 11:47 of the third period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely had a lot of good looks today,\u201d Rakell said. \u201cWe couldn’t get it done. It was very frustrating. We\u2019ve just got to regroup and move on to the next one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ross Colton<\/a> scored an empty-net goal at 16:20 for the 6-2 final in his return after missing six games with an upper-body injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really think the score really reflected how we felt throughout the game,\u201d Penguins\u00a0defenseman Erik Karlsson<\/a>\u00a0said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we played bad today. Obviously, we didn\u2019t play good enough to win either. We played one of the best teams in the League, if not the best team. That just showed today.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTES: Letang is\u00a0the\u00a021st defenseman in NHL history to reach 800 points and fourth active, joining Brent Burns<\/a>\u00a0(939), Karlsson (924) and Victor Hedman<\/a> (811). … Pittsburgh forward Evgeni Malkin<\/a> did not play with an upper-body injury. He is day to day. … Colorado forward Nicolas Roy<\/a> was sidelined because of an upper-body injury. … MacKinnon\u2019s goal was his 300th\u00a0at even-strength, the second-most in Avalanche\/Quebec Nordiques history behind Joe Sakic<\/a>\u00a0(388).\u00a0\u2026 Crosby has a four-game point streak (five points; one goal, four assists) since he returned on March 18 after sustaining a lower-body injury at the Winter Olympics. \u2026 Girard was facing Colorado for the first time since being traded to Pittsburgh on Feb. 24 after playing parts of nine seasons for the Avalanche. \u2026 Makar\u2019s assist gave the defenseman 499 NHL points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinakhov scored in a third consecutive game to tie it 1-1 at 8:09 with a one-timer from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,192,144,5277,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-521607","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\/116288442091032648","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521607","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=521607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}