Martin Necas had two goals and two assists, Gavin Brindley scored a tiebreaking goal late in the second period and added an assist, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-3 in Denver on Thursday.
Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and Brock Nelson also had goals and Mackenzie Blackwood made 18 saves for Colorado, which has won five straight and seven of the past eight (7-0-1).
Nathan MacKinnon, the NHL’s leading scorer with 33 points, added an assist to extend his point streak to 11 games (eight goals, 15 assists). He is now tied with Peter Stastny for second on the franchise list with 1,048 points. Joe Sakic holds the record with 1,641 points.
Tage Thompson had a goal and an assist, Bowen Byram and Jordan Greenway also scored and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen turned away 27 shots in relief of Alex Lyon for Buffalo. The Sabres are winless in seven road games (0-5-2).
Necas made it 1-0 just 52 seconds after the opening faceoff. It was the fourth time this season Colorado has scored in the first minute of the game, and Necas has three of them — a franchise single-season record for.
Lehkonen made it 2-0 when he buried a rebound at 6:10 of the opening period, his fourth goal in the past three games.
Luukkonen then replaced Lyon, who allowed two goals on three shots.
Buffalo got one back later in the period when Thompson slid a loose puck off Blackwood’s pads and Byram tapped it in at 7:47, but Colorado subsequently struck again.
Brindley sent a pass to Ross Colton in the slot, but it slid off Colton’s stick. Nelson was right there to clean it up and give the Avalanche a 3-1 lead at 9:46 of the first period.
The Sabres answered a few minutes later when Greenway swatted a fluttering puck past Blackwood at 13:28.
Buffalo tied it 3-3 on Thompson’s power-play goal at 14:56 of the second, but Brindley put Colorado back in front 1:26 later.
Necas sealed the outcome at 16:53 of the third period and then fed Landeskog for an empty-net goal at 18:11.
Landeskog, who had an earlier goal disallowed for goaltender interference, now has 250 career goals.
–Field Level Media
