COLORADO AVALANCHE NOTES:
TONIGHT’S GAME
COLORADO AVALANCHE (6-0-0)
at PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (2-4-0)
7:08 p.m. ET / 5:08 p.m. MT
PPG Paints Arena – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Altitude TV / 92.5 FM
The Colorado Avalanche continues their three-game road trip tonight in Pittsburgh against the Penguins…The Avs, who opened the trip with a 7-4 victory against the Islanders on Tuesday, will wrap up the road swing on Sunday afternoon in Buffalo.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Time (MT) TV / Radio
Thu, Oct. 26 at Pittsburgh 5 p.m. Altitude / 92.5
Sun, Oct. 29 at Buffalo 11 a.m. Altitude 2 / 92.5
Wed, Nov. 1 ST. LOUIS 7:30 p.m. TNT, Alt 2 / 92.5
Sat, Nov. 4 at Vegas 8 p.m. Altitude / 950
Tue, Nov. 7 NEW JERSEY 8 p.m. TNT / 92.5
Thu, Nov. 9 SEATTLE 7 p.m. Altitude / 92.5
Sat, Nov. 11 ST. LOUIS 7 p.m. Altitude / 92.5
LAST GAME – OCT. 24
AVALANCHE 7, ISLANDERS 4 – at UBS Arena
Mikko Rantanen had a goal and three assists and the Avalanche scored a season-high seven times in a 7-4 victory over the New York Islanders at UBS Arena…Cale Makar added a goal and two helpers and Ryan Johansen scored twice for the Avs, who set an NHL record with their 15th consecutive regular-season road victory dating back to last year…Nathan MacKinnon also scored and Bowen Byram and Ross Colton each found the back of the net for the first time in 2023-24…Alexandar Georgiev made 27 saves to help the Avalanche match their best start since relocating to Denver in 1995.
SF: 40 SA: 31 PP: 1-3 PK: 4-5
QUICK NOTES
At 6-0-0, the Avalanche have matched their best start to a season in Colorado history (6-0-0 in 2013-14)…A victory tonight and the Avalanche would equal the best start in franchise history set by the 1985-86 Quebec Nordiques (7-0-0).
The Avalanche have won 15 consecutive regular-season road games dating back to last year, the longest road winning streak in NHL history.
Colorado (6-0-0), Vegas (7-0-0) and Boston (6-0-0) are the only teams without a loss of any kind this season…The 2023-24 campaign marks the first in NHL history to feature three teams with a season-opening winning streak of at least six games.
Colorado has scored 13 goals in the last two games…The Avs lead the NHL in goal differential (+16) and are tied for second in goals/game (4.5)…Colorado averages a league-high 37.2 shots per night.
Alexandar Georgiev is the first goaltender in franchise history to win each of his first six starts to begin a season…He is one of eight goalies in NHL history to win each of his team’s first six games of a season…Georgiev, who leads the NHL in victories, is one shy of matching the franchise record for the most consecutive winning decisions to start a season set by J.S. Giguere in 2013-14…Georgiev has won 12 consecutive regular-season road starts, matching the longest road winning streak in NHL history.
Mikko Rantanen picked up his second 4-point game of season on Tuesday, tying Jack Hughes for the NHL lead…Mikko has eight 4-point games since the start of last season, second most in the NHL behind only Connor McDavid (10)…Rantanen’s final assist on Tuesday was the 300th helper of his NHL career.
Ryan Johansen has scored a power-play goal in each of the last three games, a career best…He will try and become the first Avalanche player to score a PPG in four straight contests since Joe Sakic, Dec. 7-13, 2006 With his three-point effort on Tuesday, Cale Makar passed Sandis Ozolinsh (253) for fourth place on the franchise all-time points list by a defenseman (now 255) and tied Ozolinsh and Erik Johnson (68) for third on the all-time goals list by a franchise blueliner.
Makar has a point in all four road contests so far…He’s the first Avalanche defenseman to record points in each of the first four road games of a season since John-Michael Liles (six games) in 2010-11.
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT – PENGUINS
Tonight is the first of two meetings between the Avalanche and Penguins in 2023-24…The Avs finished 0-1-1 against Pittsburgh last season.
REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE vs. PENGUINS
Oct. 26 @ Pittsburgh
Mar. 24 vs. PITTSBURGH
RECORD vs. PENGUINS
THIS SEASON 2022-23 ALL-TIME SINCE ’95-96
O: — O: 0-1-1 O: 44-37-13 O: 22-10-9
H: — H: 0-1-0 H: 23-17-5 H: 10-5-5
A: — A: 0-0-1 A: 21-20-8 A: 12-5-4
AVALANCHE & PENGUINS CONNECTIONS
Jack Johnson played two years with the Penguins (2018- 20)…Ryan Graves (2018-21), Matt Nieto (2016-20 and 2022-23) and Lars Eller (2022-23) are all former Avs…Colorado skills coach Toby Petersen was drafted by Pittsburgh in 1998 (ninth round, 244th overall) and began his NHL career with the Penguins.
GAME NOTES
NOT BAD FOR STARTERS
At 6-0-0, the Avalanche have matched their best start to a season in Colorado history…The 2013-14 Avs also began that year 6-0-0…A victory tonight and the Avalanche would equal the best start in franchise history set by the 1985-86 Quebec Nordiques…The Avalanche (6-0-0), Vegas (7-0-0) and Boston (6-0-0) are the only teams without a regulation or overtime/shootout loss.
BEST STARTS FRANCHISE HISTORY
7-0-0 1985-86 *Quebec
6-0-0 2023-24
6-0-0 2013-14
5-0-0 2019-20
5-0-0 1994-95 *Quebec
JUST CAN’T WAIT TO GET ON THE ROAD AGAIN
The Avalanche have won 15 straight regular-season road games dating back to last year, the longest road winning streak in NHL history (including multiple seasons)…They topped the previous mark of 14 consecutive away victories set by the Buffalo Sabres over the 2006-07 and 2007-08 campaigns…The Avs finished last season by winning their final 11 regular-season road contests and have opened this year 4-0-0 away from home…Colorado’s 4-0-0 road mark is tied for the third-best away start in franchise history…The Avs last season set franchise marks for road wins (29) and points (59) in a single campaign.
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS NOTES:
LAST 2 GAMES
Oct. 24: Dallas 4, Pittsburgh 1 – PPG Paints Arena
PIT Goals: Rust
Multiple Points: None
Goalie: Nedeljkovic (30 saves, 34 shots)
Key Stats: Bryan Rust’s scored his team-leading fifth goal in the loss.
PP: 0-3
PK: 2-2
Oct. 21: St. Louis 4, Pittsburgh 2 – Enterprise Center
PIT Goals: Malkin, Zohorna
Multiple Points: None
Goalie: Jarry (17 saves, 21 shots)
Key Stats: Evgeni Malkin extended his goal streak to four games (4G-4A) and Ryan Shea made his NHL debut.
PP: 0-2
PK: 2-2
INJURIES
Position Player Status Consecutive Games Missed Total Games Missed
N/A
2023-24 Total Regular-Season Man-Games Lost: 0
2022-23 Total Regular-Season Man-Games Lost: 215
Pittsburgh’s All-Time Record vs. Avalanche: 43-42-9
In Pittsburgh: 23-20-6
In Colorado: 20-22-3
OT Record vs. Avalanche: 7-4-6
Shootout Record vs. Avalanche: 1-0
2022-23 Results: Pittsburgh went 2-0-0.
Penguins All-Time Point Leaders vs. AVALANCHE:
Mario Lemieux – 33GP, 66 PTS (30G-36A)
Jaromir Jagr – 28GP, 36 PTS (18G-18A)
Kevin Stevens – 19GP, 31 PTS (16G-15A)
TONIGHT’S GAME
- The Penguins continue along their four-game homestand as they take on the Colorado Avalanche at PPG Paints Arena (TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh; Radio: 105.9 The X).
- The Penguins have points in 11 of their last 17 games against the Avalanche (10-6-1) dating back to Apr. 6, 2014.
- Here at home, the Penguins have wins in three of their last four games versus Colorado, and have points in six of the last eight matchups (5-2-1) against them at PPG Paints Arena.
- Pittsburgh has scored three or more goals in 11 of its last 16 home games.
QUICK HITS
1) Pittsburgh’s team faceoff win percentage of 54.9% is tied for second in the NHL behind the New York Islanders (55.4%).
2) Jake Guentzel enters tonight’s game with points in six of his last seven games (4G-5A) versus the Avalanche dating back to November 28, 2018. Guentzel has been held off the score sheet just three times in his 10 games versus Colorado.
3) Pittsburgh is averaging 35.0 shots per game, which trails only Colorado (37.2) for the highest average in the NHL.
4) Defenseman P.O Joseph is looking to appear in his 100th career NHL game. Last year, Joseph set career highs across the board in games played (75), goals
(5), assists (16), points (21) and plus/minus (+8). His plus-8 was tied for first on the Penguins. He has one assist in two career games against Colorado.
5) The Penguins have allowed just two goals against in the first period of games all season, which is tied with Boston and St. Louis for fewest in the NHL.
