Devon Toews scored twice and added an assist as the Avalanche defeated the Florida Panthers 3-1 at Ball Arena on Monday. In addition to Toews' second three-point game of the seaosn, Mikko Rantanen added a goal and Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 26 of the 27 shots he faced.
"I thought we did a great job defending tonight," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said. "When you look at the way they (the Panthers) play and look at the chances they get on a nightly basis, there's a lot of chaos at the net-front, right?. But tonight, everything looks really dangerous but we broke up a lot of plays at the net-front with sticks [and] blocks. We gave up a few and he (Blackwood) was huge in goal when we needed it and he smothers stuff and calms it down for us."
With the win, the Avs finished the first half of the season with a 25-15-1 record.