DENVER — Authentic crowd noise, a skate blade bouncing down the ice, a helmet thrown angrily back at its owner’s face, a water bottle thrown in jest at another face, and the second-fastest hat trick in franchise history. Oh, and nine goals for.
Wednesday’s Colorado Avalanche game was memorable.
Joonas Donskoi scored a hat trick in a span of 3:27 in the first period, part of a wild, seven-goal 20 minutes that gave way to a 9-3 Colorado victory over the Arizona Coyotes at Ball Arena, which welcomed a smattering of supporters for the first time this season.
“It was a lot of fun,” coach Jared Bednar said. “You could tell our guys were excited about it by the way we came out.”
Front line staff, health care workers, first responders and limited fans were invited to see the game after the arena received capacity variance approval. The Avalanche didn’t ease them back in.
Donskoi opened the scoring, staying with a puck that bounced through the crease. His second and third came 1:27 apart. One was on a hard-working shift from the third line. Donskoi headed around the net, tossing the puck past Adin Hill’s skate as he went. He went to one knee to one-time a Mikko Rantanen feed on the power play and summon a hat shower for the second time in his career.
“That was pretty incredible to watch,” forward Gabriel Landeskog said.
“He's got some high-end skills. It's been great to see him get rewarded the last few weeks.”
For a while, the goals came as quickly as line changes.
Andre Burakovsky scored 27 seconds after Donskoi’s first for a 2-0 lead that lasted all of 10 seconds. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare got the fourth line on the board before the game was six minutes old.
Arizona's Ivan Prosvetov made his NHL debut in net after starter Hill lasted just 6:04.
The scoring pace had to slow, and it did for the first 17:45 of the second period. Conor Garland got the Coyotes within two just after his team’s power play expired. On the next shift, Landeskog picked off a pass at the blue line and slung a shot on Prosvetov from the faceoff dot. It clanged off the crossbar and in.
It wasn’t a slow night for Philipp Grubauer, who secured his 100th NHL victory Monday with just 13 saves. He slid across the crease to rob wide-open Clayton Keller on a 2-on-1, one of 28 saves.
Landeskog scored his second of the night, and Donskoi went off on a 2-on-1 with Burakovsky late in the third period. The latter scored Colorado’s ninth goal.
Donskoi was the recipient of the water bottle to the face as he celebrated his hat trick, and he went down in the second period as his skate blade noisily, eerily bounced through the offensive zone.
Nathan MacKinnon pulled off Garland’s helmet and after grappling with him along the boards, threw the lid back at him, hitting the Coyote in the chin. He was given a double minor and a misconduct and may get more from the league after the fact.
Landeskog dove in to back him up.
“If somebody’s getting beat up, then you’ve got to stand up for him,” Donskoi said.
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