Martin Necas, Avalanche pay Penguins back with a blowout win

Corey Masisak, The Denver Post on Mar 24, 2026

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

PITTSBURGH — Eight days after the worst loss of the season, the Colorado Avalanche took advantage of an opportunity to exact some payback.

The Avs came to PPG Paints Arena and while it looked far from a masterpiece at times, routed the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 6-2 victory.

Martin Necas scored twice, Scott Wedgewood made 29 saves and both special teams units made an impact in the club’s third straight victory. This same Penguins team walloped the Avs, 7-2, at Ball Arena last week.

Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring with his league-leading 46th goal of the season. He took the puck off Parker Wotherspoon near the blue line in his own end, then went by the Pittsburgh defenseman and snapped one just under the crossbar on the partial breakaway.

Pittsburgh answered with an Egor Chinakhov goal at 8:09 of the first. Former Avs defenseman Samuel Girard set him up. Girard wasn’t able to play when these teams met last week because of an injury, but that was his second point with Pittsburgh since the trade late last month that sent him here with a second-round pick for Brett Kulak.

At the midpoint of the first period, the Avs looked second-best, one great play from MacKinnon aside. Then, the puck started going in.

Sam Malinski’s first shot was blocked away by Arturs Silvos, but when the puck came back to the Colorado defenseman later in the shift he didn’t miss. His wrist shot through traffic made it a 2-1 game at 15:24.

Necas scored his first of the night on the power play 80 seconds later. Josh Manson drew a tripping penalty behind the Colorado net, and five seconds after the ensuing faceoff, Necas blew a one-timer from Cale Makar past Silvos to extend the lead.

Parker Kelly capped the flurry 35 seconds later. Logan O’Connor, making his season debut after multiple ailments caused him to miss the first 69 games, corralled the puck behind the Pittsburgh net and snapped a pass to Kelly for a goal in front at 17:19.

It was far from the Avalanche’s best period of the season, but it was also 4-1 at the first intermission.

Necas added the lone goal that counted in the middle period. He was in the right place to bang home the rebound of a Devon Toews shot from the top of the offensive zone with 2:31 left in a period where the visitors didn’t create a lot of offensive looks.

That is now 34 goals and 88 points this season for Necas. Both are already career-best marks, but his hot streak since the Olympic break has given him a real chance to reach 40 goals and 100 points.

Pittsburgh thought it had made the score 4-2 at 7:38 of the second, but the Avs challenged for goaltender inference and got a Justin Brazeau tally overturned. Brazeau made contact with Wedgewood at the edge of the crease at about the same time Ryan Shea took the initial shot. Then Brazeau made further contact with Wedgewood as he went to get the rebound.

Shortly after that, the Avs had to kill off Nazem Kadri’s double-minor for high-sticking. Colorado erased both ends of the penalty and created multiple shorthanded odd-man rushes. The Avs also had to kill off 63 seconds of a 5-on-3 in the third period, and Wedgewood made a few great saves to do so.

The Avs’ penalty kill struggled right after the Olympic break, but the PK is now 18 of 20 (90.0%) in the past seven games.

Ross Colton, who like O’Connor returned from an injury absence in this contest, scored into an empty net with 3:40 remaining for his ninth of the season.

____