Brock Nelson scored two goals 2:49 apart in the second period as the New York Islanders beat the struggling Colorado Avalanche 6-2 on Monday in Denver.
Anders Lee, Kyle Palmieri, Anthony Duclair and Mathew Barzal each added a goal and Ilya Sorokin stopped 32 shots for New York, which won in coach Patrick Roy’s return to Denver. The Islanders had lost their previous two games this season, one in overtime.
Roy, a Hall of Fame goaltender, played eight seasons in Colorado and won two of his four Stanley Cups (1996, 2001) with the Avalanche. He was hired as the Avalanche’s head coach in 2013 and led Colorado to the playoffs in his first year before resigning before his fourth season.
Calum Ritchie scored his first NHL goal, Casey Mittelstadt also scored and Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves for the Avalanche, who have dropped their first three games.
Ritchie gave Colorado a 1-0 lead when he went to the open side of the crease and buried a pass from Josh Manson at 1:01 of the first. Playing in his third NHL game, Ritchie had no points before Monday.
Lee tied at 5:33 of the first when scored on the rebound of his wraparound shot, getting it past Georgiev, who was trying to hug the right post. It was his first of the season.
New York took the lead late in the first when Palmieri stole Manson’s pass at the Islanders blue line and skated into the Avalanche zone. Georgiev made a diving attempt at a pokecheck, but the puck went off the leg of Palmieri, who slid it into the open net at 18:13.
It was his first of the season.
Nelson padded the lead with his first two goals of the season. He scored the first when he picked up a loose puck in the Avalanche zone, deked Oliver Kylington and beat Georgiev at 8:25.
His second tally was a short-handed goal. Nelson stole a puck from Cale Makar at the blue line and beat Georgiev with a shot to the far post at 11:14.
Mittelstadt’s third of the season 39 seconds into the third cut Colorado’s deficit to 4-2, but Duclair answered at 6:48 with his second.
Barzal sealed it with an empty-net goal at 18:48, his first.
