Artturi Lehkonen’s hat trick catapults Avalanche past Utah

Artturi Lehkonen scored his first career hat trick and Nathan MacKinnon collected three assists to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-1 victory over the Utah Hockey Club on Friday in Salt Lake City.

Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood made 34 saves on the day the Avalanche announced he had signed a five-year, $26.25 million contract extension to record his fourth win in five starts since moving to Colorado.

Mikko Rantanen also scored for the Avalanche, who have won four straight games and eight of 10 games.

Nick Schmaltz scored the lone goal for Utah, which is winless in three games (0-2-1) and falls to 5-7-4 at home this season. Goalkeeper Karel Vejmelka stopped 33 shots.

With the possibility of extra time looming, Lehkonen scored his second goal of the night, securing a 1-1 draw with 5:16 left in regulation time. Valeri Nichushkin’s shot was stopped, but Lehkonen was there to deny the rebound and give his team the lead for good.

With his assist, Nichushkin increased his point streak to five games, in which he collected four goals and two assists.

Rantanen scored an unanswered goal, his 20th of the season, to make the score 3-1 with 1:50 left. Rantanen now has the best points streak of the season, which spanned 10 games and scored five goals and 13 assists.

Lehkonen rounded out the score with another empty-netter in the final minute, his 13th goal of the season.

Although the final score was a three-goal difference, the Avalanche actually blew a lead in the third period.

Lehkonen scored the first goal at 11:52 of the second minute. Sam Malinski carried the puck deep into the attacking zone before sliding a pass back to MacKinnon at the top of the right circle. MacKinnon weaved his way to the faceoff dot before sending the puck to Lehkonen in the slot, who immediately converted.

Schmaltz’s power play goal tied the score at 1-1 at 3:42 of the third period. Schmaltz stood in front of the net and perfectly deflected Mikhail Sergachev’s shot from the point.

The encounter had some heated moments, particularly late in the second period when MacKinnon and Barrett Hayton lost their gloves in a rare fight for them.

–Field level media