Martin Necas scored his first goal with Colorado, Jonathan Drouin had two goals and an assist, and the Avalanche defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-0 in Denver on Friday night.
Mackenzie Blackwood recorded his second shutout of the season with 19 saves, his first with Colorado. Necas and Jack Drury had a good debut in Denver thanks to goals from Joel Kiviranta and Cale Makar.
On January 24, Necas and Drury were traded to the Avalanche from Carolina. Mikko Rantanen, Colorado’s top scorer, was transferred to the Hurricanes.
Joel Hofer stopped 31 shots for St. Louis, who have now dropped four straight games. In their last six games, the Blues have suffered five losses.
Juuso Parssinen fired a feed from beyond the net to the top of the crease at 4:57, and Drouin poked it in out of midair to get Colorado going early in the first period.
Less than three minutes later, Necas scored his sixth point since the move at 7:39 after carrying the puck into the zone and putting a shot past Hofer to make it 2-0.
The later portion of the first brought Colorado’s dormant power play to life. Alexey Toropchenko’s clearing attempt from in front of the net went straight to Drouin, who beat Hofer with a high shot at 14:43 to earn his second goal of the evening. It was his second game of the season with two goals.
The Avalanche manoeuvred the ball around the St. Louis zone to Makar at the point, adding another goal on the man advantage. At 17:25, Makar drifted to his right and delivered a wrister that entered through a screen.
Colorado scored two goals on the power play for the first time since December 19. At 13:21 of the third period, Kiviranta scored the game-ending goal.
