In Tampere, Finland, — Artturi Lehkonen scored for the Colorado Avalanche in his home country to give the Avs a 1-0 lead on Saturday.
“When you get four points, the whole trip, in some ways, you can call it a success,” said Lehkonen. “These two games here, we got four points. It was a long road trip for us, it is nice to go back home.”
Colorado scored three times in the middle frame to take control of the game, 4-1, en route to a 5-1 thumping of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“Everybody knows how good a player [Nate] is,” the Avs’ Mikko Rantanen said. “He can make plays, he can score goals, he can defend hard, good skater. He plays well in the playoffs too. So I don’t know what else to want from a hockey player, so it is fun to play with him.”
Boone Jenner scored in the second half of the fist period to tie the game, 1-1, but that the extent of the Columbus offense.
“It [stinks],” said Columbus’ Patrik Laine. “Kind of wishing that this trip never happened. After this, I feel like it was a waste of time for us. It [stinks], that is all I have to say.”
Alexandar Georgiev made 31 saves in the back end of the two-in-two.
In the second period, the Avs pished hard on the Columbus defense and came away with three goals.
Martin Kaut hit for the game-winner early in the period for a 2-1 lead.
Logan O’Connor and Devon Toews scored 27 seconds apart beginning at 4:21 for a 4-1 lead.
“We just completely lost ourselves in the second period,” Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. “We are trying to cheat the game right now to get offense against their best players. It is a recipe for disaster.”
Alex Newhook made sure there was no fight left, he scored in the second minute of the third period for the 5-1 final.
“That is one of the most complete games we have played this season,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said.
Finnish native, Joonas Korpisalo made his season debut for the Blue Jackets in net, he made 40 saves in the loss.
“It was fun to play, but 5-1, that was a tough result,” Korpisalo said. “We needed these points.”
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