Review: Lehkonen’s hat trick leads Colorado 4-1 over Utah

After a much-needed four-day holiday break, the Colorado Avalanche traveled west to visit the Utah Hockey Club for another game to conclude the season series. As usual, games against Hockey Club are close affairs and this one felt no different. Despite the Avalanche’s final score of 4-1, the game remained tied until just under five minutes before the end, when Artturi Lehkonen scored his first career hat trick.

The game

It felt like a game after a break for both teams as both teams played a bit sloppy and no result was achieved. At least some shots were generated, with the Avalanche holding a 14-11 lead after 20 minutes of play.

At 11:22 in the second period, Artturi Lehkonen finally achieved the breakthrough for the guests. On a shot from Nathan MacKinnon, he put in a nice top shot to get Colorado on the field. MacKinnon had an eventful time as he put up something of a battle with Barrett Hayton after a scrum at the end boards. It was more of a destruction where no harm was done. At the end of the 40 minutes of play it was still 1-0 for the Avalanche.

Utah took the lead with Nick Schmaltz’s power play at 3:42 at the start of the third period. Then it was a close game for much of the third period as Utah fired 17 shots on goal in search of the go-ahead goal. This result was never supposed to happen, but instead Lehkonen took advantage of a great shot from Val Nichuskin to score his second goal of the night at 14:44 to put the Avalanche back in the lead.

Utah pulled Krel Vejmelka soon after and Colorado made quick work of the empty net. First, Mikko Rantanen scored his 20th goal of the season at 18:10, and then when Utah cleared the goal again, Lehkonen was able to use the lead at 19:34 for his first hat track of his career and the Avalanche’s 4-1 final victory .

Takeaways

Mackenzie Blackwood had a great evening celebrating his new five-year contract extension. He stopped 34 of 35 shots in Utah as the Avalanche continue to give up more shot volume in front of their new franchise goaltender.

Defenseman Sam Malinski received a second assist on Lehkonen’s first goal. It was only his fifth point of the season and first since the Nov. 9 game against Carolina. Despite his generally solid play, Malinski’s time on ice is heavily regulated and he played a meager 10:35 in this contest. Something to monitor in the future.

The Givani-Smith experiment must end. There is no need to constantly justify a trade submission. He played a team-low 4:38 and still managed to commit a penalty. Smith posted a 5% expected goals percentage in this game and has a team-low 20.39% in his seven games with Colorado. Enough is enough.

Soon

Another three day break and then a meeting with the Winnipeg Jets at Ball Arena on New Year’s Eve at 6pm MT.