Avalanche knock off NHL’s last unbeaten

Perhaps in recent years, a midweek game at the Prudential Center between the Colorado Avalanche and Devils would have hardly registered a blip on the radar of even the most hardcore hockey fan.

Last Thursday, however, was different.

Using the hottest line in hockey, Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog combined for 10 points to lead the Avalanche to a 5-3 win over the Devils, knocking them off their perch as the league’s last team without a blemish in the “L” column. Landeskog, the second overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, scored a hat trick in the win, with a particularly impressive second goal in which he deflected a seemingly harmless shot by Ian Cole from the blue line past goaltender Keith Kinkaid while on his knees.

“It’s just a desperation play, really,” Landeskog said. “You see the puck, and you just try to hope that your stick is going to be long enough on it, and I got lucky.”

Similar to the Devils, the Avalanche have relied on mostly home-grown young talent to revitalize a franchise once left for dead. Both teams rebounded from a season in which they picked first and fourth in the draft, respectively, to seemingly come out of nowhere and earn playoff berths in 2017-18.

“They’re young, they’re skilled, they’re fast,” Cole said when asked to compare both franchises.

“They’re a great hockey team, and they’ve certainly had a lot of success last year, but we certainly had a lot of success last year too. We’re just trying to get better.”