Grubauer, Avalanche blank Senators

Philipp Grubauer made 34 saves, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin had goals, and the streaking Colorado Avalanche beat the visiting Ottawa Senators 3-0 in Denver on Tuesday night. Grubauer earned his second shutout of the season and 11th of his career. He has allowed just three goals in his last four games.

Nathan MacKinnon had two assists to extend his points streak to five games. Andre Burakovsky, Ryan Graves and Samuel Girard also had assists for Colorado, which has won five in a row and eight of nine. Marcus Hogberg stopped 33 shots for the slumping Senators.

The Avalanche lost second-line center Nazem Kadri to a lower-body injury in a win at Minnesota on Sunday night and the team said he will be out indefinitely. J.T. Compher moved up to center the second line. The Senators, despite having won just two times in their last 17 games coming into Tuesday, took the play to Colorado in the first period. Ottawa had a 15-9 shots advantage and several good scoring chances, but it was the Avalanche who came away with the only goal.

Rantanen got a pass in the neutral zone from MacKinnon, twisted around defenseman Ron Hainsey and beat Hogberg with a backhander at 19:19. It was his 18th of the season. The Senators nearly scored late in the second when Nick Paul came in on Grubauer and crashed into the goaltender but a review of the play confirmed it wasn't a goal.

Colorado was able to extend the lead midway through the third period when Nichushkin redirected a pass from Burakovsky at 10:26. It was his 11th of the season and the Avalanche's first power-play goal in five opportunities. Ottawa pressed for a goal after that and pulled Hogberg with 3:31 left in the third. The Senators, who had 11 shots in the third, had two great chances in the final minutes but couldn't get one past Grubauer. Landeskog sealed it with an empty-net goal, his 15th, at 18:55.

--Field Level Media