Avs cruise past Coyotes thanks to 2nd-period barrage

Fredrik Olofsson had a goal and an assist, Josh Manson and Valeri Nichushkin also scored, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-1 in Denver on Saturday night.

Alexandar Georgiev made 24 saves and Logan O'Connor had two assists for Colorado.

Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his point streak to 18 games, the longest in the NHL this season. He also has at least one point in all 18 home games.

Alex Kerfoot scored and Connor Ingram turned away 22 shots for Arizona, which lost defenseman J.J. Moser to an upper-body injury early in the game. Moser was hurt after a check along the boards by Avalanche forward Miles Wood.

Coyotes forward Clayton Keller had his three-game goal streak snapped.

Colorado opened the scoring near the midway point of the first period. Ross Colton skated behind the net with the puck, sent a pass to Byram as he came down from the point and Byram beat Ingram with a wrister at 8:37.

It was Byram's sixth goal of the season.

It stayed 1-0 until the second period, when the Avalanche blew it open. It started when MacKinnon sent a backhand pass through the slot to Nichushkin and his one-timer beat Ingram at 1:27 of the second.

It was Nichushkin's 16th goal of the season.

Colorado went ahead 3-0 when Olofsson had the puck near the left circle, passed it to Manson as he came into the slot, and his snap shot went over Ingram's left blocker at 13:29 for his third goal of the season.

The Avalanche finished the dominant second when O'Connor passed it to Andrew Cogliano in front of the crease. Cogliano sent a blind backhand pass to Olofsson on the left side of the net and he made it 4-0 at 19:52.

It was Olofsson's third goal of the season.

The Coyotes avoided the shutout when Kerfoot scored a power-play goal at 16:56 of the third period for his fourth goal of the season.

—Field Level Media