Colorado
Friday Night Hockey | Colorado Avalanche
Nashville Predators (22-20-4) @ Colorado Avalanche (33-4-8)
7 p.m. MT | Ball Arena | Watch: KTVD-20, Altitude, Altitude+ | Listen: Altitude Sports Radio (92.5 FM)
In the fourth contest of a seven-game homestand, the Avalanche hosts a Central Division foe and concludes its regular-season series with the Nashville Predators on Friday. In their previous three meetings in 2025-26, the Avalanche defeated the Predators 3-0 on November 22nd, Nashville won 4-3 in a shootout in Tennessee on December 9th and Colorado won 4-2 in Denver on December 13th.
Latest Result (COL): TOR 4, COL 3 (OT)
Latest Result (NSH): EDM 3, NSH 4 (OT)
Defeat in Overtime
The Avalanche lost 4-3 in overtime to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Ball Arena on Monday. Cale Makar, Brock Nelson and Martin Necas all scored for Colorado, while Nathan MacKinnon recorded three assists. Toronto’s Easton Cowan opened the scoring at 11:15 of the first period with a shot from the bottom of the left circle that deflected into the net. Makar tied the game at 16:12 of the first period with his 14th goal of the season via a right-circle shot set up by Necas, who found the Avs blueliner after performing a highlight-reel spin-o-rama move around Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe. The Avs took a 2-1 lead on the power play at 17:53 of the first period when Nelson scored his 22nd goal of the season via a one-timer from the slot set up by MacKinnon. Bobby McMann tied the game for Toronto at 2:12 of the second period with a breakaway goal. The Maple Leafs took a 3-2 lead at 10:24 of the third period when Auston Matthews scored with a left-circle shot off the rush. Necas tied the game at 12:55 of the third period with his 21st goal of the season via a shot from the doorstep set up by MacKinnon. William Nylander scored the game-winning goal for Toronto at 3:59 of overtime with a right-circle shot.
Leading the Way
Nate the Great
MacKinnon leads the NHL in goals (36) while ranking second in points (81) and third in assists (45).
All Hail Cale
Makar leads NHL defensemen in points (53) and is tied for first in assists (39) while ranking third in goals from blueliners (14). Among all NHL skaters, he’s tied for seventh in assists.
Marty Party
Necas is tied for eighth in the NHL in points (57).
Series History
In 102 previous regular-season games against Nashville, Colorado has a record of 45-42-5-10. The teams have met twice in the playoffs, including the 2022 First Round when the Avalanche defeated the Predators in four games.
Overtime Against the Oilers
The Predators defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in overtime at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday. In the first period, Nashville’s Steven Stamkos opened the scoring at 2:45 before Edmonton’s Zach Hyman tied the game on the power play at 17:06. Erik Haula gave Nashville a 2-1 lead at 3:03 of the second period before Leon Draisaitl tied the game for Edmonton at 7:20 of the middle frame. Hyman gave the Oilers a 3-2 lead with his second power-play goal of the game at 13:12 of the second period before Nashville’s Roman Josi tied the game at 13:50 of the middle frame. Josi scored the game-winning goal with his second tally of the contest at 3:43 of overtime.
Notching Points Against Nashville
MacKinnon has posted 51 points (21g/30a) in 41 regular-season games against the Predators in addition to 12 points (8g/4a) in 10 playoff contests.
In 23 contests against Nashville, Nelson has recorded 18 points (8g/10a).
Makar has registered 25 points (7g/18a) in 18 regular-season contests against the Predators in addition to 10 points (3g/7a) in four playoff contests.
Tallying Points in Tennessee
Ryan O’Reilly leads Nashville in points (39) and assists (26) while ranking third on the team in goals (13).
Stamkos leads Nashville in goals (20) and is tied for third in goals (31).
Filip Forsberg is second on the Predators in points (32) and goals (16) while ranking tied for third in assists (16).
A Numbers Game
313
MacKinnon recorded the 313th multi-point game of his career on Monday, which tied Peter Stastny for the second most in franchise history.
4
Nelson’s four power-play goals since January 1st are the most in the NHL during that time span.
58.2%
Jack Drury’s 58.2% face-off win percentage is the fifth highest in the NHL among players with at least 500 face-offs taken this season.
Quote That Left a Mark
“You definitely liked the response. [MacKinnon] and those guys went out on the ice, [and] they had a great shift and got that goal back which was big.”
— Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar on the team’s response to trailing 3-2 in the third period against the Maple Leafs on Monday
Colorado
Warm storm delivers modest totals to Colorado’s northern mountains
Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
Friday morning wrapped up a warm storm across Colorado’s northern and central mountains, bringing totals of up to 10 inches of snowfall for several resorts.
Higher elevation areas of the northern mountains — particularly those in and near Summit County and closer to the Continental Divide — received the most amount of snow, with Copper, Winter Park and Breckenridge mountains seeing among the highest totals.
Meanwhile, lower base areas and valleys received rain and cloudy skies, thanks to a warmer storm with a snow line of roughly 9,000 feet.
Earlier this week, OpenSnow meteorologists predicted the storm’s snow totals would be around 5-10 inches, closely matching actual totals for the northern mountains. The central mountains all saw less than 5 inches of snow.
Here’s how much snow fell between Wednesday through Friday morning for some Western Slope mountains, according to a Friday report from OpenSnow:
Aspen Mountain: 0.5 inches
Snowmass: 0.5 inches
Copper Mountain: 10 inches
Winter Park: 9 inches
Breckenridge Ski Resort: 9 inches
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area: 8.5 inches
Keystone Resort: 8 inches
Loveland Ski Area: 7 inches
Vail Mountain: 7 inches
Steamboat Resort: 6 inches
Beaver Creek: 6 inches
Irwin: 4.5 inches
Cooper Mountain: 4 inches
Sunlight: 0.5 inches
Friday and Saturday will be dry, while Sunday will bring northern showers. The next storms are forecast to be around March 3-4 and March 6-7, both favoring the northern mountains.
Colorado
Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild
The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.
It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.
Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.
“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”
Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.
The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.
“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.
“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”
Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.
That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.
Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.
Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.
“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.
“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”
Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.
Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.
Martin Necas continued his hot run with a goal to even the score at 13:30 of the middle frame. Nathan MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and carried it into the offensive end. He left a drop pass for Necas near the right point and then played fullback, driving Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt back to give Necas space and then providing a screen on a lethal wrist shot from his Czech linemate.
That was Necas’ 24th goal of the season. He added a second goal in the final minute after the Wild had built a three-goal advantage to give him 25 on the season.
It’s also three in two games since the Olympic break. Necas had three goals and eight points in five games for Czechia at the Olympics in Milan, equaling his country’s record for points at the event.
MacKinnon missed Colorado’s first game back on Wednesday because of maintenance. He actually slipped to third in the NHL scoring race as of Thursday morning, in part because Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has now has 53 points in his past 23 games to track down MacKinnon and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid to make it a three-man race for the Art Ross Trophy.
McDavid (five times) and Kucherov (three) have combined to win the Art Ross in eight of the past nine years. MacKinnon has never won it, but has finished second each of the past two seasons.
Minnesota scored a second goal off a Colorado player to make it a 3-1 game and then added two empty-net tallies around Necas’ second goal to seal the Wild’s sixth win in a row.
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Colorado
Firefighters stop spread of wildfire in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon
Late Thursday morning, a house fire spreading into the nearby woods in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon prompted officials to issue a pre-evacuation order to nearby residents. Firefighters have since brought the blaze under control.
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, a house fire broke out around 11:30 a.m. in the 10600 block of Ralston Creek Road in Golden Gate Canyon, located around 25 miles west of Denver. The fire then began to spread into the nearby trees and grass.
Multiple fire units quickly responded to the scene, and the JCSO issued a pre-evacuation notice to all residents within a three-mile radius, warning them to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.
At 12:34 p.m., the sheriff’s office announced that the fire is no longer spreading and the burn area has been contained to less than an acre. A photo shared by JCSO shows a structure nearly completely destroyed by the fire.
Pre-evacuation orders were lifted around 1 p.m.
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