Avalanche double up Detroit, 6-3

In Denver, the Avalanche scored five straight goals to open the scoring on Monday afternoon, en route to a 6-3 win over the visiting Detroit Red Wings.

Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar each hit for a pair of goals in the win.

Pavel Francouz made 26 saves in the Avs win.

“There’s not too many areas I want to complain about from our last couple of games,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “So, to be able to win and win the right way and kind of get back on track on what we have to do to have success, I think is good timing.

“I think if you’re playing your game for 60 minutes the way you’re supposed to, then the wins will come in regulation.”

Colorado improved to 22-17-3.

“I think a huge thing is that some teams, they have a 5-0 lead and they just want to play offense, want to play nice, and that’s what we didn’t do,” Francouz said. “We just kept playing the same way and didn’t change anything, and that’s why we were successful.”

The Avs took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Artturi Lehkonen and Makar’s power play goal.

Makar pushed trhe lead to 3-0 early in the middle frame.

“I was actually going to shoot that and then I’d seen we had a good screen, so I just tried to get it far-side,” Makar said. “A lot of confidence comes from when you’re getting pucks to the net in the [offensive zone]. You see that they’re vulnerable, and then every shift that comes after that, all the lines see that and we just keep getting the puck to the net.”

Detroit dropped to 18-17-7.

“You lose 6-3, you don’t feel very good about yourself,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “But when you look at the whole process of it, we probably outchanced them, and I know we outshot them. They just got some momentum off some power plays, and a couple of their guys had some really, really elite nights tonight. That was the difference.”

J.T. Compher potted a second power play goal goal, and MacKinnon added tow more markers in the second for a 5-0 advantage.

“Evan [Rodrigues] makes a ton of little plays that maybe aren’t the flashiest plays but are super important for possession and building chemistry,” MacKinnon said. “It’s nice to play with a really smart [guy].”

Rodrigues had assists on the second goal from Makar and MacKinnon’s first.

“He’s got a lot of deception in his game, he’s always looking one place and passing it someplace else,” Bednar said of Rodrigues. “So, great vision and awareness right away when he picks up the puck to kind of know where guys are at and figure out where their momentum is going. And then he always adds a little bit of extra deception in it before it makes it. It’s why he’s so successful making those plays.”

Andrew Copp scored with 62 seconds left in the second period to get the Red Wings on the board at 5-1.