Makar's Four-Assist Halloween Show Fuels Lehkonen's 12-Goal Surge
GOATIFYHalloween night in Denver belonged to two players who attacked Calgary in very different ways. Cale Makar never scored, yet the Colorado Avalanche defenseman supplied four assists. Artturi Lehkonen scored twice, stretching his point streak to nine games and taking his season goal total to 12. Together, they powered a 5–2 victory over the Flames that looked routine on the scoreboard but revealed how difficult Colorado can be to contain when its best players find the same rhythm.
The Avalanche raced to a four-goal advantage, briefly let Calgary back into the contest and then ended the argument with another Makar-to-Lehkonen connection. The result improved Colorado to 8–5–1 and raised a bigger question than whether it could beat an exhausted opponent: can this combination turn a stop-start opening month into a sustained climb?
Lehkonen's two goals were the reward for nine games of relentless movement
Lehkonen's first goal came at 5:48 of the second period, just over three minutes after Martin Necas had doubled Colorado's lead on the power play. Makar maneuvered around Matvei Gridin near the top of the offensive zone, changed the angle of the attack and found Lehkonen in the slot. The finish pushed the score to 3–0. It was the sort of chance that looks straightforward once the puck reaches the shooter, but it exists because the forward understands where a defense will lose track of him for a fraction of a second.
His second was even more revealing. Calgary had scored twice to reduce a 4–0 deficit to 4–2, and the building had begun to feel the possibility of a comeback. Only 2:10 after Martin Pospisil's third-period goal, Lehkonen moved into traffic and redirected Makar's point shot through the goaltender. The goal at 4:09 restored Colorado's three-goal cushion and took the oxygen out of the Flames' response. There was no need for a spectacular solo rush. Timing, a strong stick and a willingness to occupy uncomfortable ice did the work.
That is the important distinction behind his remarkable start. Through 14 games, Lehkonen has 12 goals. His current point streak has reached nine games, during which he has produced 13 points, including nine goals and four assists. A scoring run of that size is never guaranteed to last, especially in a sport where deflections and rebounds can turn on inches. Yet the underlying habits that generate his chances are not dependent on a lucky bounce. He repeatedly gets inside defenders, stops at the crease instead of drifting through it and keeps his stick available for the next pass or shot.
Colorado already has forwards who can create offense through speed, deception and skill at the perimeter. Lehkonen offers something different. He turns that creation into goals by arriving at the right place at the right time. Playing alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas helps, of course, but good linemates do not automatically turn a winger into a prolific finisher. The player must read their movements, anticipate the opening and choose the moment to separate from coverage. His latest performance made those details visible.
It also explains why his scoring surge should not be dismissed as a hot hand with no substance. A player who waits for perfect passing lanes may see his opportunities vanish when opponents adjust. A player who attacks the net and makes defenders turn their heads can still generate second chances even when the first plan fails. Lehkonen has long been trusted for hard, responsible hockey. What has changed is the rate at which those habits are becoming goals. His two Halloween finishes were different in execution but identical in principle: win the space before the puck arrives.
Four assists, four different problems: Makar ran the game without scoring
Makar's four-assist night was not four copies of the same play. Colorado's opening goal at 14:13 of the first period began with his attempted centering pass toward Necas. A deflection carried the puck to MacKinnon, who quickly beat Arsenii Sergeev from the left circle. The scoring chance was not a perfectly drawn-up sequence, but Makar's willingness to force the puck into a dangerous area created the broken coverage that MacKinnon exploited. Good offensive defensemen are not merely accurate passers. They change the geometry of a shift.
On Lehkonen's first goal, Makar used a move around Gridin to create the lane before delivering the pass into the slot. On Brock Nelson's goal, he helped build a rush that ended with Nelson batting Gabriel Landeskog's centering feed out of the air. And on Lehkonen's second, he put the puck toward the net from the point, giving his teammate a chance to redirect it. One contribution was born of a deflection, another of a clean setup, another of a connected transition and another of the simple decision to shoot into traffic. That variety is what makes him so difficult to scout.
The performance also carried historical weight. Makar became only the fourth defenseman in NHL history to record four points on Halloween, joining Bobby Orr, Risto Siltanen and Tomas Kaberle. He was also the second player in the past 30 years with four assists on the date. Those comparisons are a fun footnote, not an argument that one October game places him alongside every legend. The more useful takeaway is that Colorado can generate elite offense from a position that opponents normally try to pressure into safe, predictable passes.
When Makar carries the puck, Calgary's first forechecker has to decide whether to challenge him directly or protect the passing lane. If that skater commits too aggressively, Makar can step around him and turn one opponent into two defenders chasing backward. If the forechecker stays passive, he can advance the play with his head up. Either choice creates a different opening for Colorado's forwards. The threat does not end once he reaches the blue line: he can shoot, pass, fake a shot or rotate into a new angle before the defense is organized.
There is still a balance to strike. An attacking defenseman must know when the rush has become too risky, particularly while the Avalanche manage injuries on the blue line. Against Calgary, Makar's timing was excellent. His offensive involvement helped Colorado move quickly from possession to danger, and the four assists were the statistical expression of that influence. The night was not about a defender abandoning his responsibilities to chase points. It was about a defender controlling the terms on which the other team had to defend.
The decisive burst: three second-period goals before Calgary could reset
The scoreboard said 1–0 after the first period. By 9:07 of the second, it said 4–0. That stretch was the difference between a competitive game and one Calgary would spend the rest of the night chasing. Necas scored on the power play at 2:37, taking a cross-ice feed from Nazem Kadri and finishing from the left circle. The pass forced Sergeev and the penalty killers to move laterally; the shot arrived before they could rebuild their shape. It was a demonstration of how quickly Colorado can punish a defensive unit that has to turn and recover.
Lehkonen followed at 5:48 with his slot finish from Makar's setup. Nelson then made it 4–0 at 9:07, redirecting Landeskog's feed out of the air near the crease. Three goals in 6:30 transformed the game. The scorers were different, and so were the mechanics: a power-play one-timer, a clean slot opportunity and an instinctive finish in traffic. The common thread was that Colorado moved the puck and bodies faster than Calgary could establish stable defensive positions. A team can survive one defensive lapse; three consecutive breakdowns are much harder to absorb.
The second-period surge also showed the value of Colorado's supporting players. MacKinnon and Makar naturally command attention, but a dangerous team needs other finishers to take advantage when opponents focus on the headline names. Necas has the release to punish a lateral pass, Nelson can finish around the crease and Landeskog can supply the physical presence and timing to make a rush dangerous. Kadri's pass on the power play was another reminder that the offense has more than one route into the scoring areas.
Calgary did not disappear entirely. Joel Farabee scored at 10:50 of the second period after recovering his own mishit attempt, and Pospisil converted Ryan Strome's centering feed at 1:59 of the third following a turnover behind Colorado's net. Those plays exposed moments when the Avalanche could still be pressured into uncomfortable decisions. The Flames had legitimate chances, and the final 5–2 score should not be read as 60 minutes of perfect Colorado hockey. But every time Calgary began to build momentum, the earlier four-goal hole made the next mistake more costly.
Sergeev was making his season debut after Calgary's goaltending depth was disrupted by an injury to Devin Cooley. He faced a difficult assignment against a team that can turn a single possession into several layers of attack. Yet the defeat cannot be reduced to a goaltender having a bad night. Colorado's passing forced defenders to surrender the middle of the ice, and its forwards made the most of those openings. Calgary entered on the second night of a back-to-back after beating Seattle, a scheduling disadvantage worth acknowledging. The Avalanche still had to exploit it, and they did so with a ruthlessly efficient middle period.
Blackwood kept the door closed — now Colorado must do it away from home
For all the attention on Colorado's scorers, Mackenzie Blackwood made a save that changed the mood of the night before the offensive explosion began. With only seconds left in the first period and the Avalanche leading 1–0, Matt Coronato found a dangerous opportunity close to the net. Blackwood sprawled across and got his glove to the puck. He then denied another quality Calgary chance early in the second. Those stops did not appear on the scoring summary, but they prevented a very different intermission conversation.
Blackwood finished with 25 saves on 27 shots. That number alone is not the entire story. Goaltenders are judged by timing as much as volume, and his most important work came when the contest was still close enough for a single goal to change its direction. Colorado eventually gave him a four-goal cushion, but Calgary's two-goal response demonstrated why early saves mattered. The Avalanche had moments of loose play in their own end, including the turnover that preceded Pospisil's third-period goal. Blackwood gave them enough margin to recover.
The blue-line situation adds another layer. Josh Manson is expected to miss significant time with an ankle injury, with the reported timeline reaching as long as eight weeks. Noah Juulsen has stepped into a larger defensive role while Colorado adjusts its pairings. That change is not merely a personnel footnote. A defense missing an experienced regular has to redistribute minutes, improve communication and make sure its most dynamic puck mover is not asked to solve every problem at once. Makar's four assists were extraordinary, but a healthy team structure must function on shifts when he is on the bench.
Colorado's victory moved it to 8–5–1, with two straight wins and three victories in its past four games. That is a promising recovery after an uneven stretch, not a guarantee of a long winning streak. Calgary, meanwhile, dropped to 6–8–0 and now faces its own questions about consistency and goaltending availability. The Avalanche have won five straight meetings against the Flames and have collected points in 13 consecutive matchups against them, a strong head-to-head trend. But dominating one opponent is not the same as proving that every weakness has been repaired.
The next challenge comes on Monday against the Chicago Blackhawks, the first game of a short road trip. Colorado must bring the same urgency without the immediate lift of a home crowd or the advantage of facing a tired Calgary team. Bednar will want cleaner exits, disciplined neutral-zone coverage and a steadier response when the opponent pushes back. If Blackwood continues to deliver timely stops and the forwards support the defense through transition, Makar can create offense without carrying an unsustainable burden. Halloween provided the blueprint; the road will test whether it travels.
Colorado's 5–2 win was not proof that every problem has disappeared. Calgary was playing on consecutive nights, the Avalanche remain short-handed on defense, and one brilliant offensive evening cannot settle a season's worth of consistency questions. But it was a convincing demonstration of what Colorado's structure looks like when Makar drives the puck, Lehkonen attacks the scoring areas and the supporting cast converts the openings.
The four assists will be remembered as Makar's Halloween signature. Lehkonen's two goals may matter even more over the long run: a nine-game point streak and 12 goals through 14 games suggest a winger turning elite positioning into sustained production. Next comes a road test against Chicago. If the Avalanche can reproduce the decisions, movement and defensive urgency from Denver rather than merely the final score, this Halloween performance could become the start of something much more substantial.
