The Avalanche need a break after a grueling five-week trip, but the club is finally starting to score points.

Joel Kiviranta set a career high in goals and points with a natural hat trick, while Mackenzie Blackwood made 17 saves to help the Avs defeat the Seattle Kraken 5-2 at Ball Arena on Sunday night.

Kiviranta scored the club’s last three goals, including two into an empty net.

“I thought and thought about passing to Mikko (Rantanen) there, but a hat-trick is a hat-trick,” Kiviranta said. “There were three good jumps today. I’m just happy that we got these two points before the Christmas break.”

Kiviranta gave the Avalanche the lead with 7:59 left in the second period. A miscommunication by Seattle caused the puck to drift into the neutral zone, where Rantanen was able to start a 2-on-1 play and set up Kiviranta for his eighth goal of the season.

He added goals Nos. 9 and 10, giving him 12 points for the season – also a new career high. Kiviranta’s final eight-goal season included 70 games for Dallas. Five of his ten goals came in the last three games. It is his second hat trick in his career, the first coming in Game 7 of the 2020 playoffs with the Stars against Colorado.

Rantanen and Cale Makar each had three points, while Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin had two for the Avs. They won seven of nine games before the break and are a season-best six games above .500 (21-15-0).

It is the most successful part of an eventful season so far. Now the Avs have four days off before a game at Utah and just one game in eight days.

“The break will be good for everyone,” said Blackwood, who will use the time off to collect more of his belongings after joining the Avs on Dec. 9 in San Jose. “Take a break and come back refreshed. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

Blackwood didn’t have many great chances, but Jaden Schwartz managed to break away from Seattle’s deficit in the third period. Blackwood stoned him, much to the delight of the ball arena audience.

At times in his career, he has been a “volume goalie” – a goalie who performs better when he takes more shots, not fewer. He’ll have games like this with Colorado, and breaks in key moments when he’s not busy will be just as important as the nights the Avs need him to make a lot of saves.

“Sometimes it can be a challenge to stay in the game when there are long stretches where there isn’t really any action,” Blackwood said. “The older I got, the easier it became. You find some tricks to stay mentally on the ball and not lose yourself a bit.”

The Avs scored a power play goal for the third straight game to take a 1-0 lead. Colorado’s first chance with the extra man didn’t go particularly well, but Seattle offered a second chance less than a minute later and the Avs took full advantage.

Makar shot from the top of the zone, Nichushkin provided protection in front of him. It was Makar’s 11th goal of the season, tying him with Columbus’ Zach Werenski for the most goals among defensemen. He has a five-point lead over Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes, just as MacKinnon has extended his lead to five among all players.

Colorado’s power play had sunk into a 5-for-48 slump following its loss to Vancouver six days earlier, but that’s four goals in three games.