Ex-Avs help Blue Jackets blitz Colorado, chase Scott Wedgewood in 7-2 rout

Corey Masisak, The Denver Post on Nov 3, 2026

Published in Hockey

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — This one was a little different, but the result was very similar.

For the fourth time in six road games, the Colorado Avalanche had a performance to forget away from Ball Arena. The Columbus Blue Jackets scored six times on their first 12 shots Tuesday night and cruised to a 7-2 victory.

Old friends Charlie Coyle and Valeri Nichushkin combined for three goals and six points. This was the first multi-point game of the season for Nichushkin, who had one goal and six points in 12 games before Tuesday.

Scott Wedgewood allowed four goals on nine shots before Mackenzie Blackwood took over. He allowed two more in quick succession after taking over, which left a little more than 27 minutes of garbage time — something the Avs are used to causing, not the other way around. The Avs are one of the best teams in the NHL at home this season, but are now 3-5-0 away from Ball Arena.

It was Wedgewood’s second tough start in a row — he allowed six goals on 35 shots on Oct. 25 in Nashville. That was the third of these four eggs the Avs have laid on the road, all in the past 15 days. The team’s overall effort level was an issue in the first three.

This one was a bad night for the goaltenders, and it would be hard to parse out the rest of the club’s effort on the second night of a back-to-back when the Avs had an obvious advantage in shots on goal early on but were chasing the whole night.

Coyle set up the first goal, on the first shift of the game. He threw the puck at Wedgewood from along the goal line, and Mathieu Olivier chipped home the rebound from the edge of the crease 28 seconds in.

Nichushkin collected an assist on the second Columbus goal at 7:37 of the first. He also provided the screen in front of Wedgewood with the Blue Jackets on the power play, a common sight during his time with the Avs in previous years, as Ivan Provorov scored from long range.

Cale Makar got one back for the Avs at 10:57. Nathan MacKinnon whiffed on a potential one-timer in the left circle, but settled the puck and then snapped a perfect cross-ice pass to Makar, who was cutting to the net for his fourth goal of the year.

At the end of the first period, the Avs had a 14-4 advantage in shots on goal. It looked pretty similar to Monday night in Chicago, when the Avs fell behind 2-0 but controlled the rest of the game en route to a 5-2 win.

The second period did not go according to that plan.

Jackets defenseman Jake Christiansen came off the bench after a dump-in, and one-timed a pass from Olivier past Wedgewood at 4:19 of the second. That was the Blue Jackets’ third goal on six shots. They didn’t get another look for almost three minutes, but Cole Sillinger scored on the third try of the next sequence at 7:20 to make it a 4-1 lead and the end of Wedgewood’s night.

Columbus scored twice in 41 seconds on Blackwood to make this one a rout. Coyle cleaned up the rebound behind the Avs goalie after he nearly made a great save on a Kent Johnson shot from close range at 12:03.

Nichushkin scored his second of the season on the next shift, bouncing one off Wedgewood’s chest and into the net on a rush. After Nazem Kadri scored a 5-on-3 goal late in the second period, Coyle added his second of the night and third of the season midway through the third.

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