NEWARK, N.J. — The list of truly impressive performances by the Colorado Avalanche this season is not long enough, given the Stanley Cup aspirations.
The Avs certainly added one to the list Sunday night, and given the context, it probably deserves to be at or near the top. Colorado, playing on short rest and on the road against one of the best teams in the NHL, throttled the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center in a 4-0 victory.
“I think it was our best game of the year on the defensive side of it, to be honest,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I just felt like we looked really organized, really disciplined and above the puck. That’s a really good offensive team we were playing there, and I felt like we made it difficult on them to generate any type of speed and find open ice.”
Scott Wedgewood made 26 saves against one of his former clubs, while the Avs’ second line provided a pair of goals and continued to look much better since the return of Ross Colton. Colorado began this five-game road trip with a wild comeback win in Buffalo before looking very pedestrian against Carolina.
After a dominant third period in Detroit and this effort, the Avs are 3-1 on the trip and have looked like a great hockey team for the past four periods.
The Devils were flying at the start of this contest, and the Avalanche looked like a club playing for the second time in as many nights and the fourth time in six days in four cities. New Jersey had the first nine shot attempts and 15 of 16 to start the game.
But Colorado scored on its only attempt to grab the lead. Casey Mittelstadt found Colton in front of the net for a one-timer 4:07 into the game. It was Colton’s first goal since returning from a broken foot. Mittelstadt had gone eight straight games without a point before collecting one Saturday night in Detroit.
New Jersey had a huge flurry of chances near the net, and Timo Meier put the puck across the goal line 7:18 into the period. The play had been whistled dead, and after an official review, it was upheld as no goal because Wedgewood had (briefly) covered the puck.
That appeared to be a tipping point in this contest. The Avalanche found some traction shortly after that sequence and stopped the one-way flow of traffic.
“I haven’t seen them play much, but they are top-five in the league for a reason,” Avs center Nathan MacKinnon said. “I’m sure it wasn’t their best and they’ll say that, but we played great. Everybody played awesome. (Wedgewood) made some huge saves and we were able to smother them pretty good.”
New Jersey had just 15 shot attempts at 5-on-5 from that point until the end of the second period, while Colorado cranked up the offensive pressure. The Avs had 45 shot attempts in that span, including 38 at 5-on-5.
Logan O’Connor made it a 2-0 game with 5:08 left in the opening period. He tipped a point shot from Calvin de Haan past Devils goalie Jake Allen for his fourth goal of the season.
Then the Avs put together one of their best periods of the past two seasons.
Colorado dominated the middle frame from start to finish. Artturi Lehkonen had the only goal of the period when Mittelstadt sprang him for a breakaway with 5:24 left for his second point of the night.
“It feels good,” Mittelstadt said. “I’m pretty hard on myself and those days can be pretty tough. The flip side of it is that it’s a pro and a con, so it feels good and we’ll just try to keep it rolling and just do what I can to chip in and help us get wins.”
But the Avs hit the post twice and created several other great scoring chances. Meanwhile, they suffocated the Devils at the other end, yielding only two shots on goal and one scoring chance, per Natural Stat Trick.
Even when the Devils found more of an offensive push in the third period, Wedgewood was again sturdy in net when needed. Then Parker Kelly ended any doubt with an empty-net goal and exclamation point on one of the best Colorado efforts of the season.
Wedgewood has now stopped every shot he’s faced in two of his three appearances for the Avs, and Alexandar Georgiev authored one of his best performances two nights ago in Detroit.
Bednar actually has what could be a difficult decision to make about the starting goaltender Monday night in Pittsburgh to finish this road trip.
“It feels great,” Bednar said. “Inconsistency is never a good thing. All of the goaltenders that have played for us this year have played really well at times, but the problem is we’ve been riding the roller coaster.
“We’re getting good performances and our team is starting to play with a little confidence in front of them. That is crucial if you’re going to have long-term success.”
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