Colorado Avalanche: Martin Kaut’s 1st Goal and Other Tidbits

The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 at home. Martin Kaut scored his first NHL goal.

The Colorado Avalanche limped through a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. I say limped because they’re injured and the game was very back-and-forth.

Gabriel Landeskog started the scoring on the power play — oh, yeah, that’s working again — in the first period. However. Zemgus Girgensons tied the game just a couple minutes later.

Martin Kaut scored in the second period, but Curtis Lazar tied the game later in the second. Finally, J.T. Compher scored the game winner midway through the third.

Goalie Pavel Francouz is back to looking human, for the most part. However, he made a couple of incredible saves, especially late in the third, to keep the Avalanche ahead.

Let’s look at some of those saves:

Something more noteworthy happened tonight though.

Martin Kaut’s 1st NHL Goal

Winger Martin Kaut is just four games into his NHL career, and he has his first NHL goal. The 20-year-old Czech has been skating on the second-team power play with all these injuries. Being on that power play is what led to his first NHL goal.

I’ll be honest, I was at the game, and the flow wasn’t going great at that moment despite the power play. The cobbled together first power play unit looked pretty good most of the night, but not on that particular outing.

Samuel Girard was playing the point. He passed to Vladislav Kamenev, who took the shot. Buffalo goalie Carter Hutton made the save but gave up a rebound.

I usually end up yelling when the goalie gives up a rebound, “Why wasn’t an Avalanche there?!” Well, this time an Avalanche was there:

Martin Kaut was in the perfect spot to collect the rebound and shoot it past Hutton.

Kaut earned first star honors with his goal:

Here he is with his game puck, which Girard collected for him:

Oh, by the way, his mom was in the audience.

Other Tidbits

Remember when Matt Duchene used to be so snakebitten? He had so many fierce cellies for after he’s finally busted his slump.

Tyson Jost makes him look like a lucky man. Tonight, just like in January against St. Louis, he scored a goal. And tonight, just like in January against St. Louis, he wasn’t allowed to keep it. This time it was waved off because his stick was a little too high.

Are. You. Kidding. Me? As Hockey Hall of Famer, and our GM, Joe Sakic points out, Jost is doing all the things right — he’s just not finding the back of the net. However, twice he’s found the back of the net and not been allowed to keep the goal.

Nonetheless, he had a fantastic game and earned third star honors for his assist on the game-winning goal. It was also his 200th NHL game:

Meanwhile said game-winning goal was scored by JT Compher. He spent the majority of the night ticking Sabres off. He tends to tick opponents off on a regular basis. Might be that dead-eyed stare.

The new guy is still getting his Colorado Avalanche legs. Vladislav Namestnikov skated on the third line with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Martin Kaut. He recorded 12:17 of ice time, all even strength. That’s a little weird because he’s supposed to be a penalty kill wizard. Anyway, aside from a big hit and a couple shots on goal, he was pretty invisible.

But, like I said, I’m sure he’s still getting accustomed to his new team and the new system — not to mention playing at altitude.

Oh, and other new guy, goalie Michael Hutchinson, did a fine job sitting on the bench.

The Colorado Avalanche will be heading on a three-game road trip that of course starts with a back-to-back. With tonight’s win, though, they are back to being second in the Central Division. They’re three points behind St. Louis with two games in hand.