The Colorado Avalanche delivered one of their best games of the season on Wednesday. J.T. Compher of Northbrook, IL recorded his first career National Hockey League hat trick and Philipp Grubauer of Rosenheim, Germany recorded his 18th career shutout as the Avalanche hammered the Los Angeles Kings 6-0.
The Avalanche win over the Kings was reminiscent of their win over the St. Blues on January 15. In the Avalanche’s second game of the 2020-21 NHL regular season, Colorado hammered St. Louis 8-0. Interestingly, the Avalanche win over the Kings on Wednesday, was their second last game of the season.
Compher’s first goal put the Avalanche up 3-0 with 45 seconds left in the first period. Mikko Rantanen of Nousiainen, Finland and captain Gabriel Landeskog of Stockholm, Sweden picked up the assists. Compher then put the Avalanche up 4-0 on a goal from Devon Toews of Abbotsford, British Columbia and Samuel Girard of Roberval, Quebec at 4:16 of the second period. Then at 11:47 of the second period, Compher put the Avalanche up 6-0 with a goal from Valeri Nichuskin of Chelyabinsk, Russia to close out the scoring.
In 2020-21, Compher now has 10 goals and eight assists for 18 points. He is a +9 with 19 penalty minutes, two power-play points, two game-winning goals, 47 shots on goal, 213 faceoff wins, 37 blocked shots, 32 hits, 15 takeaways and nine giveaways.
Grubauer meanwhile improved to 30 wins, nine regulation losses, and one loss in extra time. He has a sizzling goals against average of 1.95 and a save percentage of .922. Grubauer also has seven shutouts which are tied with Semyon Varlamov of the New York Islanders for the most in the NHL.
The Avalanche are playoff-bound and can still win the Presidents’ Trophy with the best record in the NHL in 2020-21. If the Avalanche defeat the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, they will have home ice advantage throughout the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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