Casey Mittelstadt had a goal and two assists to lead the Colorado Avalanche to their fourth straight victory, a 5-1 decision over the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday in Salt Lake City.
Cale Makar, Ross Colton, Ivan Ivan and Joel Kiviranta also scored goals and Mikko Rantanen and Nikolai Kovalenko each added two assists for Colorado. Justus Annunen made 25 saves to win his third consecutive start for the Avalanche.
Lawson Crouse scored a goal and Karel Vejmelka finished with 21 saves for Utah, which lost for the fourth time in its past five games (1-3-1).
Colorado took a 1-0 lead at 9:54 of the first period on a power-play goal by Colton, a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle past Vejmelka’s glove side. It was Colton’s team-leading seventh goal of the season, four of which have come on the power play.
Maker made it 2-0 near the end of the period when he fired a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot under Vejmelka’s arm for his third goal and league-leading 15th point.
Utah had a chance to cut the lead in half midway through the second period, but Annunen made a pad save on Kevin Stenlund’s short-handed breakaway try.
Colorado extended its lead to 3-0 at the 14:25 mark of the second period. Mittelstadt roofed a rebound from the right doorstep into a wide-open net for his fifth goal.
Ivan made it 4-0 a few minutes later with a power-play goal. He snapped in a spinning wrist shot from the edge of the left circle off a Nathan MacKinnon pass for his first career NHL goal in his eighth game.
Crouse snapped a five-period scoreless drought for Utah with 4:32 to go in the game when he split a pair of defenders at the blue line and then wrapped a backhand shot around Annunen’s left pad for his third goal.
Kiviranta answered 39 seconds later to make it 5-1 with his fourth goal. He fired a wrist shot from the top of the right circle past Vejmelka’s glove side.
–Field Level Media
