Colorado Avalanche\u00a0(45-13-10) @\u00a0Washington Capitals\u00a0(35-27-8)\u00a0<\/p>\n
10:30 a.m.\u00a0MT |\u00a0Capital One Arena\u00a0| Watch:\u00a0Altitude, Altitude+, NHL Network\u00a0| Listen: Altitude Sports Radio (92.5 FM)\u00a0<\/p>\n
After becoming the first team to both clinch a playoff spot and reach 100 points, the Avalanche\u00a0faces the Washington Capitals in a Sunday matinee. This is the second and final regular-season meeting between the teams, as the Avalanche defeated the Capitals 5-2 in Denver on January 19th.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Latest Result (COL):\u00a0COL 4, CHI 1\u00a0<\/p>\n
Latest Result (WSH): NJD 1, WSH 2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Win-dy\u00a0City Friday<\/p>\n
Martin Necas\u00a0(1g\/2a)\u00a0and Nathan MacKinnon\u00a0(3a)\u00a0posted matching three-point games to help the Avalanche defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 and clinch a playoff spot on Friday at United Center.\u00a0Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri and Valeri\u00a0Nichushkin all added a tally, while Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 19 of the 20 shots he faced in net.\u00a0Necas opened the scoring at 13:19 of the first period with his 32nd\u00a0goal of the season via a left-circle one-timer off the rush set up by Nichushkin\u2019s backhand feed after he received MacKinnon\u2019s pass that led him to the low slot.\u00a0Colorado doubled its lead on the power play at\u00a015:22 of the first period when Nelson scored his 31st\u00a0goal of the season via a net-front redirect set up by Cale Makar\u2019s feed. At 6:48 of the second period, Wyatt Kaiser put the Blackhawks on the board with a shot from the doorstep.\u00a0Kadri gave the Avs a 3-1 lead\u00a0on the power play at 36 seconds of the third period with his 14th\u00a0goal of the season via a shot from the\u00a0bottom of the right circle\u00a0assisted\u00a0by MacKinnon\u2019s cross-ice backhand feed. The Avalanche took a 4-1 lead at 8:34 of the third period when Nichushkin scored his 15th\u00a0goal of the season via a shot from the\u00a0low slot off the rush that was set up by MacKinnon, who picked up a loose puck in the high slot to start the play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leading the Way\u00a0
\nNate the Great\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacKinnon leads the NHL in goals (45) while ranking third\u00a0in points (114) and assists (69).\u00a0<\/p>\n
All Hail Cale\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among NHL defensemen, Makar is third in points (70) while ranking tied for third in goals (20) and fifth\u00a0in\u00a0assists (50).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marty Party\u00a0<\/p>\n
Necas ranks\u00a0eighth in the NHL in points (84).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Series History\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 44\u00a0previous\u00a0regular-season games against the Capitals, the Avalanche has a record of 20-20-2-2.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winning to Start the Weekend\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Capitals defeated the New Jersey Devils 2-1 at Capital One Arena on Friday. Washington\u2019s Ryan Leonard opened the scoring at 9:36 of the first\u00a0period,\u00a0and Aliaksei Protas doubled the Capitals\u2019 lead with an empty-net tally at 18:17 of the third frame. Jesper Bratt put the\u00a0Devils on the board with a goal at 19:17 of the third period.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contributing Against the Capitals\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacKinnon has posted 31 points (13g\/18a) in 22\u00a0games\u00a0against the Capitals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 10 contests against Washington, Makar\u00a0has recorded\u00a0eight points (2g\/6a).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Necas has registered 19 points (6g\/13a) in 17 games against the Capitals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scoring in D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson\u00a0are\u00a0tied for first on the Capitals in goals (25) and points (52) while ranking tied for third in assists (27).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dylan Strome leads the Capitals in assists (34) while ranking fourth in points (50) and fifth in goals\u00a0(16).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jakob\u00a0Chychrun\u00a0is second on the Capitals in assists (28) while ranking third in points (51) and tied for third in goals (23).\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Numbers Game\u00a0
\n36\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Friday, MacKinnon recorded his 36th\u00a0multi-point game of the season, which tied his mark in the 2022-23 season for the second most in Avalanche history (since 1995-96).\u00a0<\/p>\n
22\u00a0<\/p>\n
Necas\u2019\u00a022 points (13g\/9a) since February 25th\u00a0are the second most in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
8\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nelson\u2019s eight game-winning goals this season are tied for\u00a0third\u00a0in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quote That Left a Mark\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0a good start.\u00a0We\u2019ll\u00a0be happy about that. We like what\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0doing right now. Obviously, there\u2019s ebbs and flows to the season, but I think to this point in the season if you look at\u00a0it as a whole, that\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0put ourselves in a good spot here. We feel good about the way\u00a0we\u2019re playing. Making the playoffs is the first step to getting to where you want to go.\u00a0So\u00a0we\u2019re pretty happy about that. Get 100 points and still a lot of\u00a0season\u00a0left to play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
— Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar on clinching a playoff spot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorado Avalanche\u00a0(45-13-10) @\u00a0Washington Capitals\u00a0(35-27-8)\u00a0 10:30 a.m.\u00a0MT |\u00a0Capital One Arena\u00a0| Watch:\u00a0Altitude, Altitude+, NHL Network\u00a0| Listen: Altitude Sports Radio (92.5…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-556887","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\/556887","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=556887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}