In Denver Saturday, the Avalanche doubled-up the Chicago Blackhawks, 6-3, behind two goals each from Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.
“The big guns led the charge tonight. That line — Landeskog, MacKinnon, Rantanen — they were flying right out of the gate. They wanted to make sure we got off on the right foot and they led us to victory,” Avs head coach Jared Bednar said following the rebound win.
The win was a bounce-back effort for the Avs who lost 7-0 in their previous game to the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
“We don’t play again until Thursday and the way we lost on Friday, to lose again today would have been tough,” MacKinnon said. “To sit for four days, it would have been a big negative at the practice rink.”
Chicago is in a bit of a tail spin having lost three straight and five of six and are 5-5-1 on the campaign.
“We’ve been playing good hockey at times, sporadically, but obviously it’s not good enough,” Jonathan Toews said. “We get ourselves down in games and it’s just too little too late to try and come back. Throughout our games there’s some good things here and there. We’ve just got to be way more consistent.
“We want to look at the big picture and stay positive. There’s got to be urgency, but we can’t overreact.”
The Avs built a 5-0 lead after the four goals from MacKinnon and Rantanen followed by a goal from Sven Andrighetto
“There’s going to be ups and downs,” MacKinnon said. “I knew if I was aggressive and stayed even keel, good things are going to happen. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves when we don’t get results, but we were playing solid and getting chances and it was a matter of time before they started going in.”
Chicago then replied with two goals from Nick Schmaltz and Artem Anisimov.
“Obviously we didn’t get off to a great start. We dug ourselves a big hole and couldn’t find our way back. We’ve just got to keep battling and work on our starts a little bit, make sure we’re coming out fast. That was a hungry team. They came out quick and put it to us right away,” Schmaltz said after the loss.
Rocco Grimaldi tacked on the final Avs goal to make it 6-2 and
Jonathan Bernier made 39 saves to pick up the win.
“We came out strong and that’s what we wanted. This is something we have to learn, this is our building. It’s a tough building to play in with the altitude. We, as a team, are used to it. We still have to clean up a little bit when we get the lead, but everyone competed hard and wanted that win,” Bernier said.
[WATCH: Blackhawks vs. Avalanche highlights]
Anton Forsberggot the start for Chicago but was given the hook after the Avs took the 5-0 lead. Corey Crawford mopped up.
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