Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin each scored goals in Tuesday night’s 6-3 Colorado Avalanche win over the Winnipeg Jets. In the process, they made NHL history.
Lehkonen and Nichushkin have scored in each of the Avs playoff games this year. No set of teammates has ever had simultaneous postseason-opening goal streaks of 5 or more games.
Only two other teammates had ever had streaks of 4 games. That was Lanny McDonald and Joe Mullen of the Flames in 1986 and Ron Duguay and Ulf Nilsson of the Rangers in 1981.
Nichushkin scored the Avs first goal at the Canada Life Centre on a one-timer. Lehkonen’s goal came came when Jets defenseman Neal Pionk inadvertently knocked the puck into the net with his stick. That came with 6:15 left in the second period.
Colorado fans will have to wait a bit to see if the simultaneous streaks will be maintained for another game. With Tuesday’s win in Canada, the Avalanche advance to the next round of the playoffs and are now waiting to find out whether they’ll face the Dallas Stars or the Vegas Golden Knights. The Stars-Knights series is knotted up at 2-2 and the earliest it could end would be on Friday (Game 6). If it goes to a Game 7, that will take place on Sunday — and that would mean quite a lot of rest for the Avs.
Also of note in the stats department for the Avalanche on Tuesday night: Mikko Rantanen moved up on the franchise list for number of scores in potential series-clinching games. He scored two in the third period in Winnipeg and now has 8, which is tied with Michel Goulet for fourth. Current teammate Nathan MacKinnon is right in front of him with 9, and Peter Forsberg (10) and Joe Sakic (17) hold the franchise all-time lead.
