DENVER — Cale Makar had two goals and Pavel Francouz stopped 39 shots to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.
Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist, Samuel Girard also scored and Tyson Jost had two assists for Colorado, which has won two in a row despite losing another player to injury.
Forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare left the game late in the second period when he was elbowed in the head by Columbus’ Nick Foligno. The Avalanche were already without forwards Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen and Colin Wilson as well as defenceman Nikita Zadorov and goaltender Philipp Grubauer.
Emil Bemstrom and Zach Werenski scored and Joonas Korpisalo had 32 saves for Columbus.
The Avalanche trailed by a goal when Makar tied it with his third at 10:52 of the second when he beat Korpisalo over the goaltender’s left shoulder. He gave Colorado the lead later in the period when he scored on a centring pass from Jost with 3:49 left.
A minute later Foligno left his skates to hit Bellemare near centre ice, and Bellemare fell and hit his head on the ice. He was helped off and went to the locker room.
Foligno was given a charging major and a game misconduct.
Columbus pushed for the equalizer but Kadri’s goal with 2:06 left in the third sealed Colorado’s win.
The Blue Jackets led 2-1 after the first period on goals by Bemstrom and Werenski, the latter coming with less than a minute left before intermission. Girard had tied it four minutes earlier with his first goal of the season.
NOTES
Zadorov had surgery Friday to repair his broken jaw suffered in Thursday’s win over Nashville. He is considered week-to-week. … Columbus D Markus Nutivaara sat out his second straight game with an upper-body injury. … Colorado recalled C Jayson Megna from the Eagles of the AHL. He was a healthy scratch Saturday.
UP NEXT
Blue Jackets: At Montreal on Tuesday night to wrap up a three-game road trip.
Avalanche: At Winnipeg on Tuesday night to start a five-game road trip.
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Michael Kelly, The Associated Press