The recent Colorado Avalanche scoring woes came with one notable asterisk: the team’s random 6-1 blowout of the Minnesota Wild in Minnesota a little more than a week ago. After that game, the Avs went right back to struggling to score, especially on the power play where they were actively being outscored.

Like that Wild game, the Avs exploded for a six-goal outing in a 6-3 win over the visiting Dallas Stars. The win was a critical victory over the team they are closest to in the Central Division standings as they moved into a tie with the Stars with Dallas maintaining two games in hand. Colorado also pulled within one point of the team they play Monday afternoon, the Minnesota Wild, though the Wild do play later tonight.

This game was the first of three straight against the teams the Avs are trailing in the Central Division, so they are all games the Avs are badly itching to win. If we’re being honest, the games against Dallas and Minnesota are the most important just because Colorado isn’t realistically catching Winnipeg.

With that in mind, beating the Stars up today in a battle of the backup goaltenders (Casey DeSmith for Dallas, Scott Wedgewood for Colorado) was a big one for Colorado. How did they get there? Not how you’d expect.

Let’s talk about it.

Artturi Lehkonen, Avs ultimate glue guy

When head coach Jared Bednar has needed to help fix a struggling line, he likes to put Lehkonen there to get it going. Lehkonen isn’t the most naturally skilled player but he’s incredibly smart and gives you an A+ effort every night, so he naturally elevates the guys he plays with.

As Casey Mittelstadt’s struggled put him on the fourth line to begin last game, it seemed a decent response from the coaching staff would be to see how he did alongside Lehkonen and Jonathan Drouin.

That line responded, but Lehkonen was the star of the show with a four-point night. He notched an assist on the first Avs goal of the game, which shockingly came from the stick of Mittelstadt. He hasn’t been keen on shooting for, oh the last 27 or so games, so getting him the puck in a situation he had to shoot was good work from Lehkonen.

From there, he scored a goal in transition that put the Avs up 3-1 and then added an assist and scored again to put the Avs ahead 5-1. They were in complete control at that point and there was no looking back.

Lehkonen’s season totals pushed to 18 goals on the season, remarkable given he has only played 35 games. His career-high in goals for a season is 21, which came two years ago in 64 games for the Avalanche. If he stays healthy, I sure hope he clears that total with the Avs having 35 games remaining.

The glue guy seems to stick everywhere he goes and Lehkonen is manages to make it work on any line he’s on. Speaking of which…

They need to let this second line run more

I know Val Nichushkin is close to returning, but when he does he can just take Ross Colton’s spot alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Colton can then slide down to either a wing or center spot, whatever the Avs want.

The way the Lehkonen-Mittelstadt-Drouin trio played today, you have to give them a little more time. Obviously, this is a game they aren’t likely to repeat as they combined for ten points (four for Lehkonen and three each for Mittelstadt and Drouin), but every other line for the Avalanche was either breaking even or losing its matchups.

In 10:49 of 5v5 ice time, the Mittelstadt-centered second line had advantages in:

• Shot attempts (31-8)
• Shots on goal (17-4)
• Scoring chances (12-1)
• High-danger chances (8-1)
• Goals (4-1, but it was nearly five because Mittelstadt hadn’t hopped on the ice yet)

That might be the most dominant performance we’ve seen from a single line all season. It’s not fair to ask them to do that every night, but it is a glimpse into a world where Colorado’s top line is a little quieter and it doesn’t matter because the second line steps it up and eats greedy.

Looking through the matchup data, it wasn’t like the Mittelstadt line did it against one line in particular. Against Dallas’s top two centers, Matt Duchene and Wyatt Johnston, Mittelstadt went a combined shot attempt advantage of 21-7 and they scored goals against the first, second, and fourth lines of the Stars.

It was a thorough destruction.

Let’s overreact to Casey Mittelstadt’s game

I know Cale Makar was also great in this game with his two goals and playing through a clear “discomfort” after blocking a shot and leaving the ice during the second period, but I think we have to talk about Mittelstadt.

There weren’t too many detractors early in the year when Mittelstadt got off to a great start with 18 points in his first 19 games. The nerds like me who looked under the hood saw a player whose production was buoyed by power-play points he wasn’t going to continue getting when other forwards got healthy, but ultimately it was a profile of a player you were happy with as the second line center surrounded by a bunch of linemates.

When the Avs started getting healthy, Mittelstadt’s game went into the tank. Over the next 27 games, he scored just one goal and eight points while only taking 18 shots on goal. He wasn’t dangerous, he wasn’t driving play, he wasn’t doing anything.

His ice time and responsibility slipped. Nothing seemed to kick him into gear. Whispers of the Avs looking to trade him and being back in the market for a 2C began once again.

There have been moments over the last few weeks of a player starting to find it, but today he was the guy the Avs have been dying to see. He finished with a goal and two assists, matching the point total he’d accrued over his last nine games.

Genuinely, he was great today. He was on top of it and he notched well-earned points. One of my issues with his game was his lack of presence in the middle of the ice. That’s a problem for, you know, a center, and seeing him score his goal right in front of the crease today was exactly what he needed. Both of the goals he’s scored since this insane scoring drought began have come in front of the net. He needs to continue committing to being there.

The assists? Those are just the playmaking chops we’ve seen him show flashes of during this offensive lull. I’m not entirely sure why, but working alongside Drouin and Lehkonen popped today.

As a trio, they got a small bit of burn as a line last year and played 34:54 together at 5v5. In that time, they outscored the opposition 4-1 and had a 36-20 advantage in shot attempts while piling up 19 scoring chances versus just seven allowed.

This is the classic small sample size alert, but from last year’s showing and what we saw today, this is a trio that needs to stick. If it helps kicks Mittelstadt into gear on a regular basis, the outlook for this Colorado team drastically changes.