Artturi Lehkonen’s hat trick propels the Avalanche past Utah

Artturi Lehkonen posted 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 signed a five-year, $26.25 million contract extension to record his fourth win, five starts, since being traded to Colorado.

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

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

With overtime potentially looming, Lehkonen hit his second of the night to break a 1-1 tie with 5:16 left in regulation. Valeri Nichushkin’s shot was blocked but Lehkonen was on the spot to bury the rebound to put his team ahead for good.

With his assist, Nichushkin increased his point tally to five games, where he has collected four goals and two assists.

Rantanen recorded an empty netter, his 20th of the season, to make it a 3-1 game with 1:50 left. Rantanen is now riding a season-best streak of 10 points, where he has collected five goals and 13 assists.

Lehkonen rounded out the scoring 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 surrendered a lead in the third period.

Lehkonen opened the scoring at 11:52 of the second. Sam Malinski carried the puck deep into the offensive zone before pushing a pass back to MacKinnon at the top of the right circle. MacKinnon weaved his way to the faceoff dot before feeding the puck to Lehkonen in the slot and he immediately converted.

Schmaltz’s power-play goal tied the game at 1-1 at 3:42 of the third period. Schmaltz was parked in front of the net and perfectly tipped Mikhail Sergachev’s point shot.

The clash had its share of heated moments, especially late in the second period, a stretch in which MacKinnon and Barrett Hayton dropped the gloves in a rare – for them – fight.

–Field-level media