{"id":437771,"date":"2026-01-26T03:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/437771\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T03:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:27:11","slug":"nelson-scores-hat-trick-avalanche-defeat-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/437771\/","title":{"rendered":"Nelson scores hat trick, Avalanche defeat Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blackwood made 13 saves in the second, then preserved the three-goal lead at 12:18 of the third when he stretched to his right and made a sprawling pad save on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/matias-maccelli-8481711\" title=\"Matias Maccelli\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matias Maccelli<\/a>\u2019s rebound chance at the top of the goal crease.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was great tonight,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t have a lot of work, but [he] came up with some big saves when we needed them. We need that type of (goaltending). If we are a little short-handed or if our team is a little off and we are giving up more chances than we\u2019d like, we need our goalies to step up at those moments, and tonight he did that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nelson completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 17:41 to make it 4-0. It was his fifth career hat trick and first since March 19, 2022, when he played for the New York Islanders.<\/p>\n<p>Domi put in a loose puck at the top of the goal crease during a power play at 18:58 for the 4-1 final.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to fix the execution part for me and then the battle level,\u201d Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. \u201cWhen you get down in a game, you have to come together as a team and fight through that. It\u2019s going to happen, we all know that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think losing at home here has worn on our team a little bit, but that\u2019s pro sports and we have to all pull it together here and get ready for Tuesday. We need a win. That\u2019s the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NOTES: Colorado became the fourth team in NHL history with six or fewer regulation losses through 50 games in a season, joining the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers (35-3-12), the 1943-44 Montreal Canadiens (38-5-7) and the 1975-76 Canadiens (36-6-8). \u2026 Nelson\u2019s first two goals were the second-fastest scored by an Avalanche player this season behind Cale Makar (1:06 against the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 8). It\u2019s the eighth time Nelson has scored 25 goals in a season, tied with Alex DeBrincat and Kyle Connor for third-most by a U.S.-born player; only Patrick Kane (11) and Matthews (10) have more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blackwood made 13 saves in the second, then preserved the three-goal lead at 12:18 of the third when&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-437771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}