Artturi Lehkonen and Alex Newhook had two goals and an assist each, Pavel Francouz had 29 saves for his first shutout of the season and fourth of his career, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ottawa Senators 7-0 in Denver on Saturday night.

Mikko Rantanen also scored twice, Brad Hunt had a goal and Nathan MacKinnon added two assists for Colorado, which ended a four-game home losing streak.
Anton Forsberg turned away 26 shots for the Senators.

Rantanen opened the scoring when he took a return backhand pass from MacKinnon in the right circle and beat Forsberg just under the crossbar at 5:45 of the first period.

A little more than two minutes later, Logan O’Connor won a puck battle along the wall in the Ottawa end, got it over to Newhook skating into the zone, and his one-timer beat Forsberg to give the Avalanche a 2-0 lead at 7:50.

It stayed a two-goal game until midway through the second period when Lehkonen struck. He jumped off the bench, took a pass from Devon Toews at center ice and skated ahead of Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson. Forsberg made the initial save but Lehkonen was able to stuff it in at 9:05.

Rantanen made it 4-0 later in the second. He brought the puck into the Ottawa end and left it for Newhook, who skated into the slot. Newhook passed to Rantanen, who skated along the bottom of the left circle and beat Forsberg through the pads at 15:57.

It was his 29th goal of the season, the most by an Avalanche player at the midpoint of the season.

Lehkonen had his second goal of the game and 11th of the season when he got a blind pass from MacKinnon in front of the net, spun around and beat Forsberg at 8:18.

Hunt padded the lead with his second goal of the season at 15:49 to make it 6-0 and Newhook scored his second of the night at 18:14 to give him nine goals on the season.

-Field Level Media