Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and an assist, and four other players scored as the Colorado Avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues 5-3 in Denver on Tuesday night.
Erik Johnson, Josh Manson, Artturi Lehkonen and Nazem Kadri also scored for Colorado.
Darcy Kuemper stopped 29 shots and Alex Newhook and J.T. Compher had two assists each for the Avalanche (56-18-6, 118 points), who stopped a four-game skid and tied the franchise record for points in a season.
Ryan O’Reilly had two goals and an assist, Brandon Saad also scored, Jordan Kyrou had three assists and Jordan Binnington had 29 saves for St. Louis (49-21-11, 109 points). The Blues remain tied with Minnesota for second in the Central Division after having their 16-game points streak ended.
The Avalanche opened the scoring when Nichushkin beat Binnington from the top of the slot at 2:38 of the second period. It was his 25th goal.
Johnson made it 2-0 when he buried Compher’s rebound at 4:49. It was his eighth score of the season.
The Avalanche went ahead 3-0 when they got the puck off a faceoff and worked it around to Manson at the top of the zone. His sixth goal of the season went over Binnington’s shoulder at 8:03.
St. Louis got one back on the power play later in the second. Kyrou fed a pass to Saad on the left side of the crease, and the puck went off Saad’s skate at 13:01 for his 24th goal of the season.
Colorado made it 4-1 just nine seconds into third when Lehkonen stuffed Nichushkin’s rebound — his 18th tally of the season.
O’Reilly made it interesting with two goals in the final five minutes. He made it 4-2 when Kyrou’s shot went off his shin and by Kuemper at 15:45. With Binnington off for an extra skater, O’Reilly took a pass from Pavel Buchnevich and buried it at 16:49. It was his 19th goal of the season.
Kadri then scored into an empty net at 19:13 to clinch it. It was his 27th score of the season.
–Field Level Media
