Lehkonen scores twice, Avalanche top Penguins for 3rd straight win

DENVER -- Artturi Lehkonen scored twice for the Colorado Avalanche in a 4-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Ball Arena on Tuesday.

Casey Mittelstadt broke a tie on the power play with 4:09 remaining in the third period, and Nathan MacKinnon had two assists for the Avalanche (36-24-2), who have won three straight and seven of 10. Scott Wedgewood made 32 saves.

“Oh man, we did not move the puck at all tonight,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “So, turnovers after turnovers to scoring chances against. It was ugly. We had some guys play really hard in some areas to try and cover up some of those mistakes, but we beat up the puck pretty bad tonight, like the worst I've seen for a while.”

Rickard Rakell scored for the Penguins (24-30-10), who have lost three in a row and seven of eight (1-6-1). Alex Nedeljkovic made 21 saves.

“I loved our team game,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought the guys played hard tonight. There was structure; there was a collective effort in all three zones. I thought it was a good hockey game for 56 minutes. It's unfortunate it came down to an unfortunate penalty late in the game.”

Lehkonen gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 6:36 of the second period, one-timing MacKinnon’s centering pass from behind the net far side past Nedeljkovic’s glove.

“‘Art’s been doing it all year. I'm not surprised,” Mittelstadt said. “I feel like he scores every game. He's a heck of a player, for sure.”

Rakell tied it 1-1 at 18:04 when he redirected Bryan Rust’s cross-crease pass at the right post. Sidney Crosby sent the puck from the right circle over to the left dot, where Rust fed Rakell as he drove to the net.

“I just have to have my stick there,” Rakell said. “I almost still missed it, but it was a really good pass.”

Mittelstadt’s power-play goal put the Avalanche back ahead 2-1 at 15:51 of the third period. He one-timed Valeri Nichushkin's cross-crease pass off the arm of Nedeljkovic from just below the right circle.

“That was an unbelievable play by Val to bring it to the net, because they get underneath three of their guys and then bring it, and that guy at the netfront’s outnumbered and he's got to worry about Val's length and bringing it [to the net],” Bednar said. “We had a guy coming downhill in the middle of the ice, and then you still had Casey in the back door. Great play by all those guys.”

Lehkonen scored his second goal of the game into an empty net to make it 3-1 at 18:52, and Jack Drury also scored an empty-net goal at 19:52 for the 4-1 final.

“Everybody wants to, obviously, be perfect all the time, and it's never that that easy,” Wedgewood said. “So, held ourself accountable, obviously gave ourselves and put ourselves in position to win the third period, and then went out and did that.”

Ryan Lindgren made his Avalanche debut after being acquired in a trade with the New York Rangers on Saturday. The defenseman had 20:33 of ice time.

“Tonight, as far as puck play goes and defending hard and in the zone, I thought he was our best D tonight,” Bednar said. “It's not flashy. He's not going to wow you, but he's effective getting things done.”

NOTES: MacKinnon extended his home point streak to 17 games (10 goals, 17 assists). … The Avalanche recorded their 1,200th regular-season win since the club relocated from Quebec for the 1995-96 season. The team is 1,200-820-165 with 101 ties in 2,286 games. … Rust played in his 620th game as a member of the Penguins, moving past Ron Schock for 10th in franchise history.