Avalanche notes: Avs keep rolling, Wedgewood brilliant, roster moves

The Colorado Avalanche start the new week as the NHL’s best. Sunday night’s 4-1 win over the New York Islanders put the Avs four points ahead of the New Jersey Devils for the top spot in the league.

Colorado now has a 13-1-5 mark for 31 points. They lead the league with a +31 goal differential, as shown by ESPN. Meanwhile, the Avalanche sit comfortably atop the Central Division, four points ahead of the Dallas Stars and nine points in front of the Winnipeg Jets, Chicago Blackhawks, and Minnesota Wild.

With that in mind, let’s jump into some key Avalanche notes to start the week.

Avalanche notes as the new week ushers in positive vibes

Avalanche keep rolling

Sunday night’s win over the Islanders was the club’s sixth in a row. While the Isles hung tough till the end, the Avalanche pulled away with two late goals. In particular, former Islander Brock Nelson torched his former team in his first game since last season’s trade deadline deal. Nelson scored a goal and added an assist to beat his former teammates.

The game was a bit of a slogfest early, but opened up as the Avalanche turned up the heat. It’s worth pointing out, however, that the game was much closer than the score suggested. The game pretty much came down to the wire, with the Avalanche scoring twice in the final minute.

Wedgewood brilliant against Islanders

Colorado got another brilliant start from Scott Wedgewood. The Avalanche netminder made 28 saves on the night. But one in particular stood out as a game-saver.

Here’s a look at the stop as shown on the Avalanche’s official X account:

Islanders star Bo Horvat got a cross-ice feed that should have been a goal. Instead, Wedgewood slid over to make the save.

The brilliant stop highlights how positionally sound goalies usually have a chance to stop just about every shot. In this situation, Wedgewood was square in the net. So, he didn’t have to make any acrobatic moves to get across. All he did was slide across in anticipation of the pass and one-timer.

The stop saved the game. Had Horvat scored, the game would have been tied. Instead, Wedgewood made the save to preserve the win.

Makar sent back down to the Eagles

Following the game, the club announced that it had sent forward Taylor Makar back down to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.

Makar got the call-up for Sunday night’s game but saw very little action. The 24-year-old played in his third game this season. He saw 3:21 of ice time across seven shifts. He skated on a fourth line that didn’t hit the ice for very much. Makar, Zakhar Bardakov, and Parker Kelly each saw under 10 minutes of ice time on the night.

The Avalanche will have several days off before their next game. So, the rest comes in handy as Colorado will be playing three games in four nights this upcoming weekend, starting on Thursday against the Rangers.