COLUMBUS, Ohio — Valeri Nichushkin scored two goals, Scott Wedgewood stopped 22 shots and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 on Thursday night to open the season on a five-game points streak.

Nichushkin scored in the second period on a tip-in and added an empty-net goal with just under two minutes left to cap the Avalanche's fourth win in five games (4-0-1) to open the season.

Colorado's Cale Makar scored in the second period to reach 434 points, third-most by a defenseman through 400 games in NHL history behind Bobby Orr (508) and Paul Coffey (475). The goal was Makar's 118th, moving him ahead of George Boucher for fifth-most by a defenseman through 400 games.

Brock Nelson also scored for Colorado.

Columbus' Ivan Provorov had a goal in his 700th career game and

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