Rapid Recap: Avalanche 6, Coyotes 2

Six different members of the Colorado Avalanche scored in the squad's 6-2 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena on Saturday.
Nathan MacKinnon opened the game's scoring with the only marker of the first period before Jacob MacDonald found the back of the net for the first time with Colorado in the second frame.
Tyson Jost and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare each tallied for the first time this year, and Gabriel Landeskog and Joonas Donskoi also hit twine for the Avalanche. Mikko Rantanen, Andre Burakovsky and Samuel Girard each had two assists in the victory, and goaltender Philipp Grubauer made 22 saves.

Clayton Keller and Ilya Lyubushkin both scored for Arizona, while goaltender Antti Raanta made 35 saves.
The Coyotes and Avs will next meet in Denver on March 8-10 at Ball Arena.

THE GOALS

1st Period
12:16 COL (1-0) - Nathan MacKinnon skated the puck into the offensive zone and scored far-side top shelf.
2nd Period
14:13 ARI (1-1) - Clayton Keller scored with a deflection goal from the slot after a turnover.
17:15 COL (2-1) - Jacob MacDonald tallied his first goal as a member of the Avalanche on a wraparound attempt.
3rd Period
1:58 COL (3-1) - PPG, Gabriel Landeskog cleaned up a rebound from a Mikko Rantanen shot following a faceoff early on the power play.
12:00 COL (4-1) - Valeri Nichushkin found Joonas Donskoi in the slot and he scored his sixth goal of the season.
13:57 COL (5-1) - Tyson Jost got a pass from Mikko Rantanen in the slot and scored stick side.
16:32 ARI (5-2) - Johan Larsson's shot from the point was deflected by Ilya Lyubushkin and into the Avalanche net.
18:09 COL (6-2) - ENG, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored his first of the season into an empty net.
Final: Avalanche - 6 | Coyotes - 2

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 1 for 3
Arizona:0 for 2

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Philipp Grubauer made his 15th start of the season and stopped 22-of-24 shots.
Arizona: Antti Raanta allowed five goals on 40 shots.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Andre Burakovsky assisted on Nathan MacKinnon's first period goal to collect the 200th point of his career. The Swedish left wing, who skated in his 400th NHL game on Friday, added another assist in the second period to increase his point totals to 86 goals and 115 assists through 401 contests with the Avalanche and Washington Capitals.

NOTEBOOK

Gabriel Landeskog scored in the third period on the power play to tie Peter Forsberg (202) for third all-time in an Avalanche sweater (since 1995-96). Joe Sakic is first (391), followed by Milan Hejduk (375) in the franchise annals... Jacob MacDonald scored his first goal as a member of the Avalanche and the second of his NHL career… Joonas Donskoi collected an assist on MacDonald's marker, the 100th helper of his career. In 366 career games, the Finnish forward has 66 goals and 100 helpers for 166 points… Dan Renouf played his first game with the Avalanche, which was also his second NHL contest. He made his NHL debut with the Detroit Red Wings on March 27, 2017 at the Carolina Hurricanes... Samuel Girard collected two assists in the outing for his third multi-point game of the year and now has 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) on the season... Mikko Rantanen had two helpers in the contest to extend his point streak to three outings. He has one goal and four helpers in the stretch... Colorado concluded its third back-to-back set of the season and is now 2-0-1 in the second game and 2-1-0 in the first... The Avalanche has won a season-high three straight road contests and is 8-3-1 in its last 12 games overall.

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

Focus.

ROSTER REPORT

Philipp Grubauer started his 15th contest of the year while defenseman Dan Renouf played his first game as a member of the Avalanche and began the contest on a pairing with Jacob MacDonald. Head coach Jared Bednar mixed up the other D-pairings as well, combining Bowen Byram and Devon Toews and starting Ryan Graves and Samuel Girard as a duo. Forward Logan O'Connor returned to the lineup and skated on a line with Tyson Jost and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. The other trios were mixed up as well with Nathan MacKinnon centering Brandon Saad and Andre Burakovsky, and Nazem Kadri going in between Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen. The fourth threesome was Valeri Nichushkin, J.T. Compher and Joonas Donskoi.

INJURY UPDATE

Defenseman Cale Makar and forward Matt Calvert both missed the game as they are day-to-day with upper-body injuries. Rear guards Erik Johnson (upper body) and Dennis Gilbert (upper body) and goaltender Pavel Francouz (lower body) are all out long term with their ailments.

UP NEXT

Colorado continues its four-game road trip at the San Jose Sharks on Monday and Wednesday.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on start of the game
Forwards
20 Brandon Saad - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 95 Andre Burakovsky
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 91 Nazem Kadri - 96 Mikko Rantanen
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
17 Tyson Jost - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
4 Bowen Byram - 7 Devon Toews
27 Ryan Graves - 49 Samuel Girard
2 Dan Renouf - 34 Jacob MacDonald
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
32 Hunter Miska