Avalanche continue early season rampage, overwhelm Canadiens

Brock Nelson scored two goals and added a pair of assists to reach 600 career points as the Colorado Avalanche routed the Montreal Canadiens 7-2 in Denver on Saturday.

Gabriel Landeskog added two goals and an assist, Nathan MacKinnon recorded a goal and two assists, Brent Burns and Devon Toews also scored and Martin Necas had three assists for Colorado, which wore blue Quebec Nordiques sweaters in celebration of its 30th season in Denver.

Colorado goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood turned away 21 shots, although Montreal snapped his shutout streak of 174 minutes, 31 seconds, going back to his win against Buffalo on Nov. 13.

The Avalanche have won eight straight home games and are 13-0-3 in their last 16 games. Colorado's one regulation loss in 25 games has tied the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks for second place in league history for the longest span into a season with just one loss.

The 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers have the record at 37 games.

Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson scored and Jakub Dobes made 29 saves for Montreal, which had its three-game winning streak snapped.

Nelson, who tied his career high for points in a game, recorded his 600th point when took a pass from Artturi Lehkonen and wristed the puck over Dobes' left shoulder at 7:32 of the first period. Lehkonen finished with two assists.

Landeskog made it 2-0 at 13:25 of the first when Nelson's shot deflected off of him as he was upended in the Canadiens' crease by Josh Anderson. Montreal unsuccessfully challenged for goaltender interference.

Nelson assisted on Burns' goal 50 seconds into the second period, and just 3:05 later the former New York Islander scored on a backhand pass from Necas to give Colorado a 4-0 lead.

Demidov spoiled the shutout when he scored 8:27 into the second period. MacKinnon got it back when he scored his NHL-leading 20th goal of the season with 55 seconds left in the second stanza. MacKinnon also leads the league in points with 44.

Toews made it 6-1 at 2:51 of the third, Hutson scored a power-play goal at 5:10 and Landeskog completed the scoring on the power-play less than two minutes later.

Colorado outshot Montreal 36-23 and won 32 of 58 (55.2%) of the face-offs.

--Field Level Media