Chris Stewart recorded his first career hat trick in what has been an absolutely shockingly good season for the strong, quick forward.
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St Louis Blues goaltender Chris Mason had been unbeatable over his last five games, all wins. That streak included shoot-out victories against the rising Red Wings and league-best Capitals.
Mason didn’t make it past the second minute of the second period in this game, as the Avalanche began to score their goals in bunches.
After St Louis took an early 1-0 lead on a redirection goal, the Avalanche needed only 0:11 seconds to tie. Just over a minute later Colorado took the lead on the first of Chris Stewart’s three goals. Stewart and the Avalanche never looked back, stretching their lead to 5-1 before the Blues could re-compose themselves.
Chris Stewart recorded his first career hat trick in what has been an absolutely shockingly good season for the strong, quick forward. Stewart has 44 points in 48 games since scoring his first NHL goal against Detroit on October 24th, 2009. Chris also has seven goals in his last eight games.
More amazing than his eye-popping statistics was the way that Chris logged his first career hat trick.
After scoring on a wrister in the first period and a slapshot in the first minute of the second period, Stewart was tripped down on a breakaway in the final minute of the second. Chris was awarded a Penalty Shot on the play, and he made it a no-doubt wrister over the glove of Blues backup Ty Conklin. The Colorado crowd flooded the ice with hats in honor of Stewart’s big game.
The Blues didn’t back off, though, recording the first goal of the third period to make it a 3-6 disadvantage. The Avalanche buckled down on defense, and added an empty netter with just over a minute left to seal the blowout win.
Interestingly, the Denver University Pioneers played their final regular season game at the same time in the same state. For a while, both the Pioneers and Avalanche were enjoying 6-3 leads, and each game ended with 7-3 wins. DU will go into the WCHA tournament as the #1 seed after knocking off the Colorado College Tigers a night after losing 1-2 to their front-range rivals.
Meanwhile the Avalanche will get ready to take on their own rivals, the Northwest leading Vancouver Canucks, in Colorado on Tuesday night. The Avs and ‘Nucks have 80 points each at the moment, making Tuesday’s contest the biggest game of the season for both teams.
