Postgame Notes & Quotes 3, 0 Wednesday, November 22, 2017

The Avalanche improved to 7-1-1 at home this season and has now won its last five outings at Pepsi Center.

Colorado is now 10-1-1 in its last 12 home games against Dallas dating back to March 2013.

Nathan MacKinnon factored into each of Colorado’s three goals, finishing with a trio of assists on the night. He’s now totaled 20 points (6g, 14a) in his last 10 outings, including seven multipoint performances. Elias notes that MacKinnon is the first Avalanche player to record 20 points in a span of 10 team games since Joe Sakic from March 20 – April 9, 2006 (7-13—20).

MacKinnon’s 17 points in November is tied for second in the league in scoring during the month and he’s pacing all skaters with 13 assists in that span. His 17 points are also a career high for scoring in a month.

Jonathan Bernier picked up his first of the season and 15th of his career. It was his second career shutout against Dallas.

Erik Johnson extended his goal streak to two games, his first two-game goal streak since Feb. 14-17, 2016 (at Buffalo, vs. Montreal). He also finished with a season-high plus-3 rating.

Gabriel Landeskog registered his team-leading ninth goal of the season. He now has 24 points in 25 career games against Dallas, his highest total against a single opponent in his career.

Nail Yakupov extended his goal streak to two games and now has seven tallies on the season, which is tied for second on the team.

The Avs top line (Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen) combined for six points (1g, 5a) and has totaled 18 points (6g, 12a) in its last two home games. The trio has 43 points (15g, 28a) in nine home contests this season.

The Avalanche held Dallas scoreless on two power-play opportunities and is now 25- for-27 (92.6%) on the penalty kill at home this season, fourth-best in the league.

Colorado C Nathan MacKinnon On His Performance: “It’s been good lately. A lot of hard work has been put into it though. You know with our line, we haven’t been getting lucky bounces, I feel like we’ve dominated a lot of games. We’ve had a lot of chances. Yeah, we have four very fast lines and we roll them over. Our D with the addition of Sam (Colorado D Samuel Girard) has been great. I mean, he breaks the puck out so well and brings it up the ice and obviously Tyson (Colorado D Tyson Barrie) and EJ (Colorado D ) are very quick too. Yeah, it’s been good.”

On The Avs’ Record At Home: “I feel like any teams that are in the playoffs, any good ones, their home record is better than their road. I think we’ve been great on the road. It’s a lot harder obviously, they have the matchups, but we definitely need to take advantage of home ice. I mean, it’s early, we’ve only played 20 games this season but home ice has been good. We’re looking to build on the road too.”

Colorado G Jonathan Bernier On Getting The Win: “I thought right off the bat we deserved that game. You know, we outcompeted them, we outskated and that’s where we want it. Obviously they played last night so that was our game plan.”

On His Performance: “Yeah, I felt pretty good. You know, I think it just carried from Detroit and obviously it’s nice to get back-to-back games in, just starting to feel pretty good. I’ve just been practicing hard and it paid off tonight.”

Colorado D Erik Johnson On The Avs’ Performance: “I think maybe from start to finish it was our most complete game of the year. I think we really felt like we frustrated them and didn’t give them much of a chance. You know, they’re obviously on a back-to-back but overall, I loved our game from start to finish.”

On His Goal: “It was a good play by Nate (Colorado C Nathan MacKinnon). I had a little bit more speed than he did ahead of him on the play. I was calling for it and he kicked it out. I didn’t have a great angle so I just tried to put it five-hole and luckily it just snuck over the line so that felt good.”

Dallas G Ben Bishop On The Loss: “It’s disappointing. I don’t think any of us are very happy right now. We can’t keep coming on the road and having the same talk after every road game. We have to dig within, look ourselves in the mirror here and find a way to get wins on the road.”

On Dallas’ Division Record: “It’s still early but obviously that’s a startling stat. It’s something you can’t be very happy with and it’s something we are going to have to change. I think we have some division games coming up in the next few so we are going to have to take the ownership to win those division games.”

Dallas C Jamie Benn On Dallas G Ben Bishop’s Performance: “It’s a tough one to lose. He played a great game and made huge saves, especially early in the first. They came out of the gate pretty hot and he stood on his head, it was unfortunate that we couldn’t get him some support.”

On The Loss: “Right now it’s only minutes after the game, you look at the game and you don’t get two points so it feels like we’re not making progress. We will have to watch the video and see what we did good, see what we did bad and move on.”