Avalanche defeat Golden Knights, extend point streak to nine

DENVER --The Colorado Avalanche used a four-goal second period to extend their point streak to nine games with a 5-1 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena on Thursday.

Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar and J.T. Compher each had a goal and an assist, and Philipp Grubauer made 18 saves for Colorado (21-8-3), which is 8-0-1 during its streak.
"We got some timely goals and we were able to build off of that," Landeskog said. "Guys stepped up big. It was good to see [Compher] get on the board, and Cale had a beautiful goal. Overall, a good team effort. Our game starts with defensive commitment, and we go from there. We know what can create offense, and the buy-in for the last month and a bit has been really good, and we're seeing the results from it."

Max Pacioretty scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves for Vegas (22-8-1).
"The good news is we get to play this team again (Saturday) and we get another chance at proving ourselves here," Pacioretty said. "We're really upset with the way we played tonight. We have to come to the rink tomorrow ready to do the things that's going to prepare us to play a game we're capable of winning against a team like that."
Pacioretty gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead with a backhand from the slot 40 seconds into the first period after missing the previous two games with a lower-body injury.
"We knew they were going to be good and motivated," Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. "The start was a little bit of fool's gold. We were fortunate to be up 1-0 at the end of one. I'm not sure we deserved it. Got an old-fashioned [butt]-kicking tonight."
Joonas Donskoi tied it 1-1 at 4:04 of the second period when he swatted the puck out of the air after it bounced in the slot.
"That was big, definitely," Landeskog said. "For us, our unit, our power play wasn't necessarily clicking tonight, but it was good to see him get one on the power play and kind of get the ice tilted that way early on in the second."
Compher gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead at 9:15, skating down the left wing and putting in a backhand from a sharp angle under Fleury's right arm.
"I was just trying to play with my legs, use my speed and get the puck to the net," Compher said. "It wasn't a great shot by any means, it was able to squeak through. That's the way we're trying to play, play fast and go to the net."

Makar made it 3-1 at 12:37 of the second, beating Fleury five-hole after cutting inside Golden Knights defenseman Nick Holden.
Landeskog increased the lead to 4-1 at 15:41. Mikko Rantanen deflected Makar's point shot, and Landeskog found the loose puck near the right post.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare converted a cross-ice pass from Compher on a rush at 3:54 of the third period to make it 5-1.
"I thought it was a grind for our guys tonight," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "The Bellemare line was outstanding, the [Tyson] Jost line was also good, and we found a way to score some timely goals and check pretty hard and played with pretty good pack mentality, but the game was a little bit sloppy, and I just didn't think we had a lot of energy."
Nicolas Roy scored for Vegas at 14:36 of the third, but Bednar challenged the play for offside, and the goal was waved off after video review showed Ryan Reaves entered the Colorado zone ahead of the puck at 14:27.
"I don't think you can move on when you lose a game 5-1," Golden Knights captain Mark Stone said. "You have to sit down and look at it and see what went wrong. At first glance, kind of got out-competed. The first period was pretty level. Take three penalties in the first [10] minutes of the second period, lose flow, lost a lot of our top guys sitting. The penalty kill did a great job, and they get a lucky goal. Just took a lot of flow out of the game, and they completely dominated us for the last 15 minutes of that period."
NOTES:It was the first loss for Vegas this season when leading entering the second period (14-0-0 entering Thursday). … It was Bednar's 166th win with Colorado (166-144-38), moving him past Marc Crawford for third place in wins by a coach in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. He trails Michel Bergeron (265) and Bob Hartley (193). … Rantanen has 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) during an eight-game point streak. … Landeskog has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) during a seven-game point streak and moved past Alex Tanguay (488 points) into eighth place in points in Avalanche/Nordiques history. … Colorado wore "Boulder Strong" warmup jerseys with the No. 10 to honor the 10 victims of a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday. The jerseys will be signed and auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Colorado Healing Fund.