The New York Islanders spoiled Brock Nelson’s return to Long Island on Thursday night. The Colorado Avalanche lost to the Islanders 6–3, and it ended a 17-game point streak for Colorado. New York has now beaten two of the best teams in the NHL in the Avs and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Avs have a very narrow three-point lead over the Dallas Stars in the Central Division in the standings despite the amazing run. Colorado still has just two regulation losses in 27 games this season.

View from the Mountaintop

The Islanders established the tone for the entire game just six minutes into the first frame. The Islanders took a shot, and goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood lost track of the puck. An Islanders player got his stick stuck in Blackwood’s leg pads and went down and could not move. While this happened, Kyle MacLean gathered the loose puck and snapped the shot past Blackwood. The Avalanche challenged the goal, but the goal stood. Colorado ended up going on one of two penalty kills in the period, and they could not gain any momentum in the first.

“Goalie interference is a joke,” coach Jared Bednar told Corey Masisak of the Denver Post. “If that’s not goalie interference, I don’t know what is. You can’t just show the goalie’s pads out of the way and create a loose puck.”

Lines had to be adjusted during the second period to provide a spark for the Avalanche. Martin Necas dropped as far as the third line. It worked, though. Within a shift or two after his change down, Necas scored. Gabriel Landeskog played second line right wing, and then the coach moved him to first line left wing. The shift lit a fire for the Avalanche as they scored two of three goals with the new lines.

The loss will bring an end to a 17-game point streak that the Avalanche gathered 31 points in the standings. Colorado went 14–0–3 during the stretch, and they maintained first place in the league the entire time. It is the second-longest point streak in franchise history; the first was from January 2 to February 13, 2022. During the stretch in 2022, the Avalanche were 17–0–2, earning 35 points. The third-longest streak was December 27, 2000 to January 30, 2001, another season in which the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.

Up Next

The Avalanche will hop on a bus and play the New York Rangers on Saturday in a matinee game at 10:30 a.m. MT. Altitude Sports will broadcast the game.