Valeri Nichushkin’s game isn’t all the way back, but he’s certainly making a big impact.
Nichushkin scored the lone goal in the fifth round of a shootout Wednesday night to give the Colorado Avalanche a hard-earned 2-1 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena.
The 29-year-old power forward also had the team’s only goal in regulation. Alexandar Georgiev made 18 saves, then stopped all five Vegas shooters in the shootout. Adin Hill made 33 saves, including several great ones, to nearly steal one for the visitors.
“(Nichushkin) is getting there,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought tonight there were some really good flashes of him being strong on the puck and really battling through checks to be able to make some plays. There were other times I felt like it looked like Val had heavy legs. He didn’t have the separation speed that he can normally have.
“His game is still coming. I do think his details have been tight and his puck play is starting to come.”
After a scoreless opening 33 minutes, both teams got on the board in a span of 33 seconds. Vegas struck first with a beautifully executed end-to-end maneuver.
Alex Pietrangelo and Ivan Barbashev completed a nifty give-and-go to get the Golden Knights through the neutral zone, then the latter found Pavel Dorofeyev as the trailer and his shot beat Georgiev at 13:09 of the second.
Dorofeyev has been a breakout player for Vegas this season. His 12 goals lead the club after he had 13 in 47 games a year ago.
Colorado’s top line created several good looks in the second period, and finally cashed in on what looked like a harmless sequence at first. Nathan MacKinnon carried the puck into the offensive zone and tried to feed Artturi Lehkonen in the slot.
That pass was broken up, but Lehkonen harassed William Karlsson into turning the puck over to Nichushkin. He swooped in and snapped a shot from the slot that appeared to surprise Hill.
It was Nichushkin’s second goal of the season. He’s got five points in six games since returning from a six-month suspension and Stage 3 of the NHL-NHLPA player assistance program.
“He’s a great player,” Georgiev said. “He’s tough to stop when he’s going. He’s super fast and super big, has all the tools. Very happy that he’s back and playing better and better here.”
Neither team scored in the opening period, but Vegas controlled the play for longer stretches. The Golden Knights spent a lot of time in the Colorado end, even passing up shot attempts from the top of the zone on a handful of occasions in favor of dumping the puck back into the corners and continuing to lean on the Avs along the walls.
Even before the outcome was decided, this was clearly a bounce-back performance for the Avs. Colorado had a great start to its recently completed four-game road trip with three consecutive wins, but the final contest was an ugly 8-2 loss Monday night in Tampa, Fla.
The Avs’ issues in that game were punctuated by Georgiev, playing in relief of Justus Annunen, smashing his stick off the crossbar and hurling it off the glass behind his net after a Lightning goal.
There was no need for such antics on this night. Georgiev was solid in net, as was Hill at the other end for the Golden Knights.
“I really liked that game from us,” Bednar said. “It was hard finding ice to create scoring chances for both teams. Both teams skated hard, checked hard. There was a pretty good pace to the game, and some heaviness to it too.
“As the game went on, I thought we got more and more dangerous, spent more time in the attacking zone, created more scoring chances. It was a good, all-around hockey game.”
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