Avalanche vs. Devils: Kadri and Kelly Spark a Four-Goal Third Period as Colorado Snaps New Jersey's Streak

For 40 minutes, Jake Allen was running the most frustrating show in Denver. Colorado peppered him, circled him, crashed his crease, and walked into the third period of Wednesday night's game tied 1-1 with a New Jersey team that was playing the second half of a back-to-back.

Then the name on the front of the sweater finally made sense. Nazem Kadri and Parker Kelly scored 1:02 apart early in the third, Nathan MacKinnon and Jaden Schwartz added two more in a 30-second burst, and the Colorado Avalanche buried the Devils 5-2 at Ball Arena to snap New Jersey's four-game winning streak.

Allen Versus the World

The Devils actually scored first on a play that summed up how weird the opening period was. Brett Pesce went to the box for hooking, and while Colorado was on the power play, Connor Brown picked off a MacKinnon centering pass and took off. On the ensuing 2-on-1 with Luke Hughes, his pass attempt clipped Cale Makar's skate and squeezed through Mackenzie Blackwood at 12:21. A shorthanded goal, unassisted, and New Jersey led 1-0 on a night it would spend mostly defending.

Colorado also lost defenseman Josh Manson during the first period, and coach Jared Bednar's postgame update was short: "He's going to miss some time."

The Avalanche kept coming anyway. With Nico Hischier serving a hooking minor in the second, Gabriel Landeskog dished to Devon Toews up top, crashed the net and buried a Jaden Schwartz cross-crease feed at the right post at 10:58. It was his fifth goal of the season and it felt overdue.

"It felt like one of those games (where) it felt like we were carrying the play and dominating for stretches," Landeskog said, "but they're also kind of scary games to play because, especially against a team like that, they don't need many chances."

Then came a stretch that could have flipped everything. Logan O'Connor took a cross-checking minor at 18:01 of the second, Brent Burns was called for tripping at 19:28, and the Devils got a two-man advantage to close the period. They came away with nothing. New Jersey finished 0-for-3 on the power play.

The Turning Point: Burns Gets Out and the Dam Breaks

Burns got out of the box early in the third and soon went to work. At 2:45, Nicolas Roy sold a shot from the right side, then threaded the puck past Allen's right leg to Kadri, who had the whole left post to himself. Burns had the secondary assist.

"I was definitely yelling for it, for sure. It's a great play by him," Kadri said.

Just 1:02 later, Kelly let a defender sag off him in the right circle and wired a wrist shot past Allen's glove on the short side. Burns assisted again. 3-1. Kelly admitted afterward that the shot was basically plan Z: "Honestly, shooting was my last thought. I felt like I looked at every option."

Devils coach Sheldon Keefe found the right metaphor. "Obviously, the dam broke on us, but not a lack of fight or compete from our guys here today," he said.

MacKinnon Adds the Exclamation Point

If there was any doubt left, MacKinnon erased it at 12:00 of the third. He went right between Luke Hughes and Pesce at center ice, broke in alone and beat Allen low on the glove side for his eighth goal of the season. Thirty seconds later, Sam Malinski fired from up high, the puck caromed to Schwartz in the left circle, and he dumped it into a vacated net. 5-1. Brown got one back at 15:35, backhanding home the rebound of an Amadeus Lombardi shot for his second of the night, but the damage was long done.

The star of the box score might be a 40-something defenseman, though. Burns had two assists, a plus-2 rating and four blocked shots in 17:49, and per NHL.com he reached 950 career points, passing Erik Karlsson and Chris Chelios for sole possession of 10th-most by a defenseman in NHL history. That is not a typo.

Malinski also had two assists and finished plus-3 in 21:11. Kadri and Schwartz each had a goal and an assist, MacKinnon won 12 faceoffs, and Artturi Lehkonen picked up an assist to go with his 10 goals. Blackwood made 20 saves on 22 shots in his 300th NHL game, according to NHL.com.

Bednar liked what he saw: "Growth for me was there was a simplicity to our offense," he said. "Like I think it's repeatable, regardless of your opponent."

For New Jersey, Brown's two goals were his first two of the season. Allen was the reason the Devils hung around, stopping 40 of 45 shots.

Numbers That Matter

• 45-22. Colorado more than doubled New Jersey on the shot clock. Allen deserved a better fate.
• 4. Unanswered goals for the Avalanche in the third period, with all four coming in a span of under 10 minutes.
• 0-for-3. New Jersey's power play, including a two-man advantage late in the second that could have flipped the game.
• 950. Career points for Burns, now 10th all time among defensemen, per NHL.com.
• 452. Bednar's win total with Colorado, tying Joel Quenneville's mark with Chicago for ninth-most coaching wins with one franchise in league history, per NHL.com.

What It Means

Colorado improves to 7-5-1 with 15 points and is now 5-1-1 at home. This one also came with a side of revenge: the Devils beat the Avalanche 4-3 in New Jersey on Oct. 20, and Colorado had dropped four of its previous six games, including a 6-2 loss in Nashville on Sunday. The Avs host Calgary on Saturday night.

New Jersey falls to 8-5-0 with 16 points and 2-3-0 on the road. The four-game heater, capped by a 5-1 win in Dallas on Tuesday, is over, and Keefe pointed to the schedule. "That's a tough back-to-back," he said.

Cody Glass summed up what Brown brings even on a losing night: "He can play any role you want to throw at him."

The Uno Reverse Card

New Jersey arrived in Denver with four straight wins and the swagger that comes with them. Colorado answered with the Uno reverse card: patience for two periods, then four goals before the Devils could catch their breath. Brown, who scored both New Jersey goals, said it better than anyone: "They did to us, tonight, what we've been doing to teams."

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com; additional details from the Associated Press.