Lehkonen gets 1st NHL hat trick, Avalanche defeat Utah

Artturi Lehkonen scored his first NHL hat trick, and the Colorado Avalanche won 4-1 against the Utah Hockey Club at Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday.

“First of my career in the NHL, so it's fun, for sure,” Lehkonen said. “Mikko [Rantanen] told me on the last shift, if he ever gets the puck, he's just going to look for me just to take off. So, yeah, happy that I got it.”

Nathan MacKinnon had three assists and Rantanen scored for the Avalanche (22-15-0), who have won four consecutive games and eight of their past 10. Mackenzie Blackwood made 34 saves.

“They've always played us hard. Their team's coming [along]. Lots of young, skilled players,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I think it's our best stretch of hockey too.

“I think we're getting more consistent, more dialed in, more committed to the way we need to play all the time.”

Karel Vejmelka made 33 saves, and Nick Schmaltz scored for Utah (16-13-6), which has lost three straight after winning four in a row.

“We played against a really good team who were ready to play. They played hard,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “With those guys, year after year we’re going toe-to-toe pretty good. I think it’s a good matchup. There’s intensity and there’s emotion on both sides. We did pretty good this year against them, if you look at the quality of team they have, but unfortunately that’s a big game we wanted.”

Lehkonen scored to make it 1-0 Colorado when he shoveled in MacKinnon’s centering pass from the top of the crease at 11:52 of the second period.

“I just pretty much drove the net and tried to find a little room there, and Nate made a heck of a pass there, like through two people. So I pretty much had a tap-in,” said Lehkonen. “It's the kind of player he is. Just got to have your stick on the ice and good things will happen when you play with him.”

Schmaltz tied it 1-1 at 3:42 of the third period with a power-play goal. He deflected Mikhail Sergachev’s point shot at the top of the crease. Colorado had killed off 16 consecutive penalties prior to the goal.

“It’s a one-shot game. It’s a good hockey game,” Schmaltz said. “We fought hard, and it’s unfortunate to give one up late in the third there. Weren’t able to convert on the 6-on-5 either.

“I think, in those critical moments, we got to step up and make a play when it matters. I think that’s what it comes down to. It’s either you make the play, or they make the play.”

Lehkonen made it 2-1 when he located the rebound of Valeri Nichushkin’s shot and put it around the leg of Vejmelka at 14:44.

“Obviously, their power play kind of got them jump-started there, but we did a nice job on the defending side of it too,” Bednar said. “They're one of the most dangerous teams in the League when it comes to creating offense. Have been for probably the last couple of months.”

Rantanen scored into the empty net to make it 3-1 at 18:10 to extend his point streak to 10 games (18 points; five goals, 13 assists).

“We just gave up that unnecessary goal in the third period,” Sergachev said. “I thought we had the game under our control. We were kind of rolling. But you know, good players make good plays, and they did.”

Lehkonen completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 19:35 for the 4-1 final.

NOTES: MacKinnon leads the NHL with 60 points and 46 assists. He is the fastest player to 60 points (37 games) in franchise history. … MacKinnon extended his 2024 point total to 142 (46 goals, 96 assists) in 82 games and became the ninth different player in NHL history to have 140 or more regular-season points in a calendar year (Wayne Gretzky, 11 times; Phil Esposito, 3; Mario Lemieux, 3; Jaromir Jagr, 2; Connor McDavid, 2, Marcel Dionne, Mike Bossy and Pat LaFontaine). … Nichushkin extended his point streak to five games (four goals, two assists). … Josh Manson returned to the lineup after missing the previous 12 games with an upper-body injury. He finished plus-1 with three shots in 19:42 of ice time.