In Glendale, the Colorado Avalanche swept a weekend set from the Arizona Coyotes with a 5-0 win on Saturday.
Darcy Kuemper made 20 saves in the Avs win, it was his first shutout with Colorado.
“There were more emotions on the side than I thought being back here, a lot of good memories,” Kuemper said. “The guys played great in front of me. It was a fun night, and fun to finally get the shutout.”
The Avalanche improved to 24-8-3.
“To be able to put it all together for one night is good, and now we’ll use that as sort of a benchmark for our team on how we want to continue to play,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said.
Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon hit for a pair of goals each in the Colorado win.
“It was probably one of our best games this year,” Rantanen said. “That’s what we talked about a lot, to play hard and defend well and that’s how we create offense. And `Kemps’ was really good. He didn’t get too many shots, but he made some big stops.”
Arizona dropped to 8-24-4.
“They’re a really skilled team and they’ve got all-star forwards,” the Coyotes’ Victor Soderstrom said. “They do the same thing every night and every team knows that in the League, and you’ve just got to try to keep up with it. We played hard around the net maybe half the game tonight, and that wasn’t good enough.”
Nazem Kadri added a single marker for the Avs.
“I think it was in everyone’s mind, but we really didn’t talk about it,” Rantanen said of Kuemper’s return to Arizona, where he played for 3 1/2 seasons. “I think he enjoyed it. It’s probably a nice feeling to get the shutout against his old team, and I’m happy for him.”
Karel Vejmelka made 27 saves in the Coyotes loss.
“We played a good game in there last night and I think we poked the bear a little bit,” Coyotes assistant coach Cory Stillman said. “They put their captain [Landeskog] back in the lineup and it changes their lines. It puts guys in the position they should be in. Landeskog comes in and the top line scores four goals, so that’s the difference.”
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