Schenn, Buchnevich each has hat trick in Blues win against Avalanche

DENVER -- Brayden Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich each scored a hat trick for the St. Louis Blues in an 8-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Saturday.

Torey Krug had a goal and an assist, and Robert Thomas had four assists for the Blues (7-5-1), who have won four of their past five games. Jordan Binnington made 36 saves.

“I think we've been playing pretty solid hockey, and tonight we did a good job of scoring some goals and doing some things to score goals,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “Special teams were really good. Our kill got a couple of [short-handed goals] out of it and scored a couple big power-play goals in the third period. But overall, I thought it was a good team effort. Getting to an early start and scoring early. Our goaltender was really solid, too.”

Mikko Rantanen and Jack Johnson scored for the Avalanche (8-5-0), who have lost five of their past seven games. Alexandar Georgiev allowed six goals on 28 shots before being replaced in the third period by Ivan Prosvetov, who made 12 saves.

“The third period was a joke. That was the worst period I've ever seen from our club,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We're getting outplayed. Goaltender's getting outplayed by their goaltender. Forwards are getting outplayed by their forwards. 'D' are getting outplayed by their ‘D.’ Not for the whole game, but for big enough stretches. That's why the score gets run up.”

Schenn gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 1:08 of the first period when he redirected Krug’s point. He then made it 2-0 at 18:53 by elevating the puck over a sprawling Georgiev.

“Our offense has really changed or started to come around since the last time we were here in this building (4-1 loss on Nov. 1),” Schenn said. “We had some meetings and [were] kind of shown League-wide trends of how to score and what really works and what we were doing that wasn't right. So ever since then, the buy-in has been there, and guys are getting rewarded for it.

“It's not anything flashy. It's putting the puck in deep, grinding teams down, getting to the net, 'D' shooting pucks, and not passing up opportunities. It's not a recipe other teams don't know, it's just you have to have a commitment to do it, and when you do, other things open up for you, and like I said, guys get rewarded.”

Krug pushed it to 3-0 with two seconds remaining in the first, scoring glove side with a wrist shot from above the right circle.

Buchnevich made it 4-0 at 11:52 of the second period, finishing a 2-on-1 with Oskar Sundqvist for a short-handed goal.

“I think it's a big game for our club, just confidence-wise, and you can see things were connecting for the guys tonight,” Binnington said. “We've been working hard, we've been working on our foundation, and I think just buying in, finding a way, seeing success and seeing guys get some goals and assists, and it all starts from our framework and our foundation.”

Rantanen cut the lead to 4-1 at 16:07 when he deflected Cale Makar’s point shot over the right shoulder of Binnington.

Buchnevich made it 5-1 at 1:20 of the third period. He buried a one-timer off a cross-crease pass from Thomas on a power play.

Schenn completed the hat trick with his own power-play goal to make it 6-1 at 2:49.

“I'm not a pure goal-scorer. I don't know how many hat tricks I have in my career (four), but it always feels good to get rewarded,” Schenn said. “Thomas put that one on a tee for me and I was able to hit it.”

Buchnevich completed his own hat trick on a short-handed breakaway to make it 7-1 at 15:57.

“It's pretty cool. I never been involved in a game when two guys scored a hat trick,” Buchnevich said. “It's obviously a good team. Stanley Cup champion a couple years ago (2022). Divisional game, basically a four-point game, and you're happy to get the win.”

Alexey Toropchenko scored on his own rebound at 19:11 to make it 8-1.

Johnson scored on a slap shot from the point at 19:32 for the 8-2 final.

“A lot of things kind of got to go wrong to lose [8-2],” Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said. “This is a really tough streak of games, honestly, basically getting shut out whatever four of the last five or four of the last six. Yeah, It's a weird one.”

NOTES: Buchnevich is the third player in Blues history to score two short-handed goals in a game, joining Michal Handzus (Feb. 15, 2000, against the Atlanta Thrashers) and Larry Patey (Nov. 2, 1980, against the Chicago Blackhawks). He is also the third Blues player in the past 20 years to score a power-play and short-handed goal in the same game, joining Zach Sanford (March 1, 2021) and Andy McDonald (Nov. 14, 2008). … Schenn and Buchnevich became the third pair of Blues players to score a hat trick in the same game, joining Doug Gilmour and Mark Hunter (Feb. 23, 1986), and Kevin LaVallee and Dave Barr (Oct. 20, 1984). ... Colorado has allowed 38 goals in its past nine games. … Thomas extended his NHL career-high point streak to six games (five goals, five assists).