Colorado Avalanche vs Boston Bruins Match Player Stats On Dec 07, 2019

Ian Cole scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the second period as the Colorado Avalanche handed the Boston Bruins their first regulation home loss of the season, 4-1, on Saturday.

Valeri Nichushkin, Andre Burakovsky and Gabriel Landeskog also scored, and Joonas Donskoi had two assists as the Avalanche extended their winning streak to six. Colorado overcame injuries to starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer and rookie phenom defenseman Cale Makar.

Pavel Francouz took over in net and stopped all 16 shots he faced after Grubauer exited in the first.

Chris Wagner scored, and Jaroslav Halak made 16 saves for the Bruins, whose 13-game points streak (9-0-4) came to an end. Boston entered the contest 12-0-5 at home.

The Bruins were up 1-0 when Grubauer appeared to sustain a lower-body injury lunging to defend a Brett Ritchie breakaway. With play continuing, Grubauer initially remained in the contest and attempted to shake the injury out, finally exiting when Nichushkin knotted the score at 1 with his tally at 17:25 of the first.

Grubauer, who made three saves, skated off the ice and went straight to the locker room, later returning to the bench. Makar would also head right to the locker room after getting checked in the left shoulder by Brad Marchand in the third period and would not return.

At 9:17 of the second, Cole gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead with a laser one-time slap shot from the top of the left circle for his first goal of the season in his 500th career game. Burakovsky made it 3-1 when he gained separation skating up ice and wristed the puck over Halak's glove with 1:39 left in the period.

Boston had just eight shots on net through the first two periods before firing 12 in the third. The Bruins pulled Halak at the start of a power play with 2:21 remaining but couldn't break through, as Landeskog's empty-netter put the game away with three seconds remaining.

The Bruins got on the board first on Wagner's redirect of a John Moore blast from the blue line at 13:14 of the first period.

--Field Level Media