The Colorado Avalanche came home after two road wins to take on the Boston Bruins on Saturday night. Boston is in a rebuild but came into the game with a 3–2 record in close games. The Bruins struck first just three minutes into the game, and then it was all Avalanche from there. Colorado recovered after leaving Scott Wedgewood’s back door wide open to score four unanswered goals. Boston did an excellent job of shutting down the struggling power play for the Avalanche. Colorado easily walked away with a 4–1 victory after shutting the Bruins down in the second period with just two shots on goal.

View from the Mountaintop

The Avalanche had five chances on the power play and did not convert on any of them. The Avalanche convert only 15 percent of their chances, ranking them 25th in the league. Colorado put Charlie McAvoy in the penalty box once, and he is the Bruins’ best penalty killer. They should have taken advantage of the situation to give the team a little more breathing room. Good things are happening, though. The Avalanche are making great entries into the offensive zone with drop passes and using their speed. They are also using the screen in front of the net to block the goalie, but Jeremy Swayman was seeing the puck a lot better than expected.

Defenseman Brent Burns tallied an assist on Josh Manson’s goal after Gabriel Landeskog won the face-off. He now has a four-game point streak and is the oldest defenseman to have earned such a streak in franchise history. At the intermission, Manson said that he had learned so much from Burns, both on and off the ice. Burns has brought a spark to the Avalanche that was not there before. He interacts with fans during practices and is always talking to the younger players on the ice.

Nathan MacKinnon added two goals to his total on Saturday. He now has six goals for the season and moves into second place for goals in the league. This was MacKinnon’s 25th career multi-goal game, moving him to fourth in franchise history and tied with Milan Hejduk.

Up Next

The Avalanche meet up with the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday night at the Delta Center at 8 p.m. MT. ESPN will broadcast the game.