Denver, CO
Valeri Nichushkin, Mikko Rantanen power Avalanche past Golden Knights
The past two Stanley Cup champions are both missing key players but remain near the top of the NHL standings. When they met Wednesday night at Ball Arena, one certainly looked ready to make another deep playoff run.
Valeri Nichushkin scored a pair of power-play goals and the Colorado Avalanche cruised past the Vegas Golden Knights in a 3-0 victory that at times did not look as close as the scoreboard indicated. Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves, and all of Colorado’s top offensive players had a strong night against the defending champions.
“When we play the best we can, we have an opportunity to win no matter who is in our lineup,” Avs forward Andrew Cogliano said. “We’ve lost guys, but our top guys are on another level. Those guys are playing so well right now that it forces other guys to play at another level as well.”
Vegas crushed Colorado in the first meeting between the clubs, but this was a very different game. The Avs have now won 11 of 15 games in the past month (11-3-1) and the past two — this one and a 4-3 shootout win against the Boston Bruins — were arguably the most impressive.
“We’re playing great defense right now,” Georgiev said. “Especially this game, we didn’t give them too many odd-man rushes in the zone. Everybody’s playing smart, and the forwards are coming back (to help) our ‘D’ now.”
Nichushkin gave the Avs the lead with 13.8 seconds left in the first period. He drew a penalty 10 seconds before the goal, then scored on a one-timer from Mikko Rantanen in front of the Vegas net.
Colorado’s second goal looked a lot like the first, with a little more panache. All five members of the top power-play unit touched the puck in rapid succession. Jonathan Drouin set up Nathan MacKinnon with a cross-ice pass for a one-timer.
After MacKinnon’s shot hit the side of the net, Rantanen backhanded a between-the-legs pass to Nichushkin, who was waiting in the same spot for another one-timer.
“I think there’s really good decision making by those guys right now,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “The execution is high. … The execution within the game plan and the recognition of what teams are giving us and what could be open is what’s really amped up from the players.”
With two more power-play goals, Nichushkin is second in the league with 13, one behind Florida’s Sam Reinhart. Eighteen of Nichushkin’s 22 goals have come in the high-danger area in front of the opposing goal crease, according to NHL Edge.
Nichushkin now has 22 goals this season, which is tied for the team lead with MacKinnon and three shy of his career high. The two are tied for eighth in the NHL, while Rantanen is one behind them. The Avs remain the only team in the league with three 20-plus goal scorers.
MacKinnon tied Joe Sakic’s franchise record by scoring at least one point in 23 consecutive home games. He has at least a point in every home game this season, and it’s now tied for the third-longest streak in NHL history.
This wasn’t a fully healthy Golden Knights team. Vegas is currently without defenseman Shea Theodore, forward William Karlsson and both of its top two goaltenders. The Golden Knights had to turn to No. 3 goalie Jiri Patera, and he was the biggest reason why Colorado did not turn this into a rout in the second period.
Colorado played a second straight game without both of its second-pairing defensemen (Bowen Byram and Josh Manson), and remained short two top-nine forwards (Artturi Lehkonen and Miles Wood). Manson and Wood should be back soon, while Lehkonen has progressed to taking contact in practice and will join the Avs on this upcoming five-game road trip.
Two games ago, the Avs lost 8-4 at home to Florida and both goaltenders struggled. Georgiev was good against Boston and great against Vegas.
His coach called it a perfect game. His home fans spent the final minute or so of the contest chanting his name.
“Really cool,” Georgiev said. “You try to appreciate it, but at the same time not give too much attention there because you still have the game to play. But I appreciate that a lot.”
Footnotes: Isaiah Saville, who played for the Colorado Thunderbirds during the 2016-17 season, was a late addition to Vegas’ lineup as the backup goalie.
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Denver, CO
Denver Barkey scores first career goal as Flyers take down Oilers
Item 1 of 33 Jan 3, 2026; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Philadelphia Flyers right winger Garnet Hathaway (19) skates on the ice during the pre game warm up as the Edmonton Oilers take on the Philadelphia Flyers before the first period at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images
[1/33]Jan 3, 2026; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Philadelphia Flyers right winger Garnet Hathaway (19) skates on the ice during the pre game warm up as the Edmonton Oilers take on the Philadelphia Flyers before the first period at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images Purchase Licensing Rights
January 3 – Denver Barkey’s first NHL tally highlighted a three-goal first period for the Philadelphia Flyers, who beat the host Edmonton Oilers 5-2 on Saturday.
Travis Sanheim and Bobby Brink also scored in the first, while Nick Seeler and Owen Tippett each posted a goal with an assist and Sean Couturier added two helpers for the Flyers, who finished a 3-2-0 road trip. Dan Vladar made 22 saves for Philadelphia, which allowed 13 Edmonton shots on goal in the first period, but just 11 the rest of the way.
Connor McDavid extended his point streak to 15 games with his 25th goal of the season and Evan Bouchard also scored for the Oilers, who have dropped two straight and three of four.
Philadelphia made its mark early in the first period. Tippett passed the puck into the slot for a streaking Barkey, who beat Oilers’ Calvin Pickard (24 saves) for his milestone goal just 7:16 into the contest.
Barkey’s marker essentially set the tempo, as the visitors made it 2-0 with 9:29 left in the first when Sanheim beat Pickard from the right circle.
Philadelphia then extended its lead a little over four minutes later when an Edmonton turnover led to the puck deflecting into the net off the heel of Brink’s skate off a shot from Cam York.
Vladar, meanwhile, was solid by stopping 12 shots in the first period. However, he couldn’t prevent McDavid from scoring on a breakaway, which came off a Sanheim turnover in the neutral zone, with 3:52 remaining before the first intermission.
The Oilers made it 3-2 on the power play with 10:06 remaining in the second period. With an assist from McDavid, Bouchard unloaded a successful slap shot from the left point to give Edmonton at least one goal on the man advantage in nine of the last 10 games.
Philadelphia found some breathing room with 10:51 remaining in regulation off Seeler’s wrister for his first goal of the season. Tippett added an empty-netter as the Flyers scored at least five goals for the third time in their last six.
McDavid, meanwhile, has 14 goals with 22 assists in the last 15 games.
–Field Level Media
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Denver, CO
A franchise quarterback is vital to winning division titles
You might respond to this headline with ‘and water is wet’ and I wouldn’t blame you, but I was looking over the Denver Broncos history and how often they have won a division title. In their 65 years, the Broncos have brought home 16 AFC West division titles. That’s not very many, but given their first winning season was almost 20 years into it then it doesn’t look so bad.
The other thing I noticed is that only those teams who had a franchise quarterback type player under center did they repeat often as division winners. 11 of those 16 titles were won while John Elway or Peyton Manning were quarterbacking the franchise. Craig Morton won two backed by the vaunted Orange Crush defense of the 70s, but the rest were one-off division winners like Jake Plummer and Tim Tebow. Now that latter list includes Bo Nix.
The craziest stat that I found researching this topic was that all but one Broncos team that did not win the division were one-and-done in the playoffs. The lone team that wasn’t was that 1997 Super Bowl winning squad. Every single other team that finished second or third in the division and made the playoffs did not win a game once they got there. That doesn’t have much to do with the franchise quarterback topic here, but I found this little tidbit too interesting to not share.
As for the division winners, there were plenty of one-and-done seasons there too, but all of their playoff wins sans-1997 are also there.
The question I meant to get to sooner before going off on that side quest regarding the playoff outcomes was whether or not Bo Nix joins Elway and Manning or ends up with the Plummer and Morton’s of history of pretty good but not all-time great. A few playoff wins over the next month would certainly move the needle some before adding more division titles down the road.
Denver, CO
Denver police report increase in street racing arrests and citations in 2025
DENVER — Street racing continues to pose threats to Colorado drivers, so Denver7 looked into the trends we saw throughout 2025.
Denver Police report 80 citations and arrests as of December 17 for 2025. That’s 20 more than last year, according to Doug Schepman, director of communications for the Denver Police Department (DPD).
There is one strip of road in Denver we asked Schepman about specifically, after hearing from business owners that it’s particularly troublesome.
We’re talking about the 2000 block of S. Santa Fe Drive in Denver.
Michael Gray, owner of Discount Fishing Tackle, said it’s a weekly occurrence to watch or hear cars and motorcycles zip past.
“Recently, we’ve seen the kids on the motorcycles coming by with the front wheel in the air, going just as dangerous as can be, and especially dangerous because so many other people are going so fast on this road,” Gray said.
He said he’s noticed that as more turnoffs are removed and the spacing between traffic lights gets longer, more drivers tend to use it as their personal raceway.
“It doesn’t affect us really too much, but you don’t like to have something as dangerous as that going on all the time,” he said.
Schepman said patrol districts are aware that street racing occurs along this stretch of South Santa Fe Drive, and that officers are directed to patrol the area during periods when reports are more prevalent.
He adds that the community plays a critical part in helping investigators curb this problem.
The Colorado State Patrol said it has received more than 1,700 reports from the community this year.
You can continue to report street racing here.
Denver7
Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Allie Jennerjahn
Denver7’s Allie Jennerjahn covers stories that have an impact in all of Colorado’s communities, but specializes in reporting on crime, corruption and ways to protect your family. If you’d like to get in touch with Allie, fill out the form below to send her an email.
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