On Sunday, February 2nd, the Avalanche continued their dominant defensive streak, blanking the Philadelphia Flyers at Ball Arena for their second consecutive shutout victory while simultaneously handing Philadelphia their third straight loss, also their third loss without scoring a goal. Samuel Girard and Nathan MacKinnon each scored the two goals for Colorado. Mackenzie Blackwood stood tall between the pipes, turning aside all 24 shots he faced to secure the shutout, who previously stopped all 19 shots he faced in the 5-0 win on Friday against the St. Louis Blues. The Avalanche will be heading out on the road for a five-game road trip, starting in Vancouver on Tuesday, while the Flyers take on the Utah Hockey Club in search of a win to snap their losing streak.
Colorado Avalanche Lineup:
Lehkonen – MacKinnon – Necas
Drouin – Mittelstadt – Parssinen
Wood – Drury – Colton
Kiviranta – Kelly – O’Connor
Toews – Makar
Girard – Manson
Middleton – Malinski
Blackwood
Miner
Philadelphia Flyers Lineup:
Laughton – Abols – Brink
Foerster – Cates – Konecny
Richard – Couturier – Michkov
Gaucher – Hathaway
York – Sanheim
Andrae – Ristolainen
Seeler – Drysdale
Johnson
Ersson
Fedotov
After a scoreless 20, Samuel Girard opened the scoring on a wrist shot for his third of the season to put Colorado in front 1-0 with 11:27 on the clock in the second period. Girard took a drop pass from Casey Mittelstadt on a 3-on-2 rush after Scott Laughton shot wide on a 3-on-1 rush and the Avalanche got the puck out of their zone, Mittelstadt carrying it out and through the neutral zone into the Flyers’ zone after taking a pass from Jonathan Drouin. Nathan MacKinnon extended the lead to 2-0 with his 20th of the season on a power-play goal later into the frame at 2:32 after passing back and forth, getting the puck back from Cale Makar, and firing a wrister from the left face-off dot, far-side past Samuel Ersson’s glove.
The third period stayed scoreless, the Flyers could not find the back of the net and the Avalanche won with a 2-0 score.
Notes:
– With his power-play goal, which had been his first since October 28th (a span of 44 games), Nathan MacKinnon hit the 20-goal mark for the 10th time during his NHL career and his eighth in a row. In franchise history, only four other players have registered double-digit 20-goal campaigns including, Joe Sakic (17), Milan Hejduk (11), Peter Stastny (10), and Michel Goulet (10). …MacKinnon is the first player, so far, this season to reach 80 points.
– Jonathan Drouin collected a pair of assists.
– CO: 31-21-2, PHILLY: 23-25-6
– Scott Wedgewood wasn’t backup for Mackenzie Blackwood due to an upper-body injury, day-to-day.
– Samuel Ersson made a total of 30 saves for Philadelphia.
– Rasmus Ristolainen left during the second period due to an undisclosed injury, not returning for the remainder of the game. There had been no update on him postgame.
– Making his NHL debut for the Philadelphia Flyers, Jacob Gaucher is the 70th undrafted player in franchise history to make his NHL debut.
ITR 39: Conference Finals – Inside The Rink
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