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Avalanche Win Third Straight; Cale Makar In A League Of His Own |
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The Colorado Avalanche won again and while the new guys have been making all the headlines it is still Cale Makar that steals the show.
Makar added a goal and two assists in the 'Avs 5-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Friday night. Valeri Nichushkin scored two goals. Nazem Kadri broke an 11-game goal drought and Darren Helm looked like Makar for his first goal in 25 games.
Pave Francouz made 25 saves in the win. Colorado moved all the way to 7th in the league in team save percentage. They were as low as 29th in January.
It was another banner night for Colorado despite a late rally by the Sharks, but again this night was the Makar show.
Makar has 22 goals on the season and is one goal shy of Sandis Ozolinsh's team record 23 back 1996-97. His 69 points (22g 47a)puts him 15th in NHL scoring and second among defensemen (Josi). The kid has 163 points in 159 career games and he's already 24th in scoring in franchise history.
Currently, Makar leads all NHL defensemen in goal scoring and he already has the most goals by a defenseman since Brent Burns collected 29 in the 2016-17 season. (BTW, I covered the Sharks for HB during that season - just saying...)
Makar just makes this team go. He does so many great things that it's hard to say what he does best. He will be a front-runner for the Norris Trophy this season. That's a no-brainer.
Colorado has 52 goals from its defense and will easily break the franchise's record of 53 they scored when they were still in Quebec (92-93).
Colorado improved to 44-13-5 with 93 points - the best 62 game start in franchise history. The first team to 90.
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Note: The new guys did pretty good too...
- Nico Sturm played over 15 minutes and had a 75% (6/8) faceoff percentage. He is a big force out there and he was noticeable.
- Josh Manson played over 16 minutes and was tied for the team lead in hits.
Thanks for reading,
Steve
Colorado Avalanche Blogger • 
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