Avs hand league-leading Canucks third straight loss

Ryan Johansen scored two goals, Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his home point streak and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 on Tuesday in Denver.

Artturi Lehkonen had an empty-net goal and Alexandar Georgiev turned away 24 shots for Colorado, which has won two in a row after a 1-4-1 road trip.

MacKinnon has now registered a point in all 27 Avalanche home games, which is tied for the seventh-longest such stretch in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky holds the record with a 40-game streak for the Los Angeles Kings in 1988-89.

J.T. Miller scored and Thatcher Demko made 24 saves for the Canucks, who have lost three in a row for the first time this season. Vancouver, which leads the NHL with 80 points, was coming off a 10-7 road loss at Minnesota on Monday.

Miller, who had a hat trick against the Wild, gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead vs. the Avalanche at 10:46 of the first period. He got behind the Colorado defense as he took a pass from Brock Boeser and wristed a shot under Georgiev's left blocker for his 28th goal.

It stayed that way until early in the second period. Jack Johnson's shot was right of the net, bounced off the backboards to Johansen on the left side of the crease, and he backhanded it in at 2:54.

Johansen gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead with his second of the game and 13th of the season when his shot from the point deflected off Vancouver defenseman Ian Cole's arm and under the crossbar at 1:35 of the third.

The Canucks appeared to tie it four minutes later when Elias Pettersson deflected Nikita Zadorov's shot from the point, but the goal was quickly waved off because Pettersson's tip was with a high stick.

Vancouver had a couple of quality scoring chances later in the third period but couldn't cash in. The Canucks had one last push when they pulled Demko for an extra skater, but Lehkonen scored his seventh of the season at 19:32 off a pass from MacKinnon to seal it.

—Field Level Media