Good & Bad: Necas, MacKinnon, and Makar Lift Avalanche Over Calgary

Martin Necas has looked like a great fit for the Avalanche since he was acquired. But while he’s had spurts of production, his true potential wasn’t quite realized — at least not with all the opportunities he was getting.

Until Thursday.

Necas had two goals and an assist, putting up his first three-point game with the Avs to help Colorado to a 4-2 victory over the Flames in Calgary. Necas also had eight shots on goal — one off his career high.

Cale Makar had a goal and an assist and Nathan MacKinnon had three helpers. Artturi Lehkonen, the last piece of the top line, also had a goal. The Avs had a bad first period before the top stars did their thing offensively.

“Our leadership group did a nice job of getting us back on track because the first period was ugly,” Jared Bednar told reporters. “All of a sudden it was a complete turnaround in the second. Good on our leaders for taking control of the room.”

The Avs trailed 1-0 after the first period, where they only put nine shots on goalie Dustin Wolf. To make matters worse, they thought they had a goal late in the frame with less than a minute remaining but a coach’s challenge for offsides negated the tally. Sam Malinski scored but Jonathan Drouin was offside.

At the first intermission, the Avalanche skated off the ice having scored just three goals in the last nine periods of action.

The period before that stretch was a four-goal outburst against the Blues. They needed something like that and they got it.

Makar scored just 1:20 into the second to tie things up off a feed from MacKinnon. Before the first commercial break, MacKinnon set up Lehkonen’s tally to make it 2-1. And before the period ended, Colorado got a PP tally from Necas at 19:42 off a deflection from a MacKinnon shot.

The Avs added to the lead in the third when Necas scored his second, capitalizing on a breakaway off a feed from Sam Malinski.

Calgary added a late tally before the game ended.

In goal, Mackenzie Blackwood made 27 saves for his third win in four games. Blackwood has allowed four goals in that stretch and has two shutouts.

Good: The New Trio of Stars

Before the game, my colleague at the Denver Post Corey Masisak took a picture of Gabriel Landeskog and MacKinnon catching up with Flames defenseman Tyson Barrie. I remember seeing that photo and joking that those three guys were the original trio for the Avs. They walked so the next era of MacKinnon, Makar, and Mikko Rantanen could run. But then the Rantanen trade happened, and suddenly a new era was upon us.

Welcome to the new era of MacKinnon, Makar, and Necas.

This was the first game where those three guys truly were the difference. For so many years, MacKinnon, Makar, and Rantanen were always littered all over the score sheet. Seeing Necas step into that role and be the goal-scorer of the bunch is great. Kudos to him for fitting right in.

Three goals, five assists, and eight points for Necas in seven games with the Avalanche. You’d think he and MacKinnon had played together for years.

“In transition, their rush attack has been really good. I like what they’re doing in the offensive zone, too,” Bednar said of their chemistry together. “We’re starting to see flashes. Pretty quickly I think they found some solid chemistry. They’re helping that along with conversations on and off the ice, on practice days.”

Bad: Opening Period

I’ll admit, after how they looked in the first, I wasn’t expecting them to finish off the game the way they did.

The problem with the Avs this year is that when they fall into a rut, it stretches for a handful of games — they don’t work out of them as easily. Despite winning two of their last three games before this one, the lack of offense after that opening period against St. Louis felt like they were falling into another one of those ruts.

But it only took 80 seconds for Makar to get on the board and the rest is history. Kudos to them for breaking out of it.

But they gotta clean up those types of periods regardless. Especially with a matchup against the Edmonton Oilers coming up on Friday.