The Avalanche are finally above .500 again at home. After beating the Kraken 5-2 on Sunday, Colorado improved to 9-8-0 at Ball Arena. The record is still a shell of what it was a season ago, but it’s a good start to what will be a long stretch of games where the majority will be played in Denver.

Cale Makar and Valeri Nichushkin scored for the Avs. And Joel Kiviranta scored his first career hat trick (regular season) as the team improved to 21-15-0 before the break while riding a three-game winning streak.

We’re all going to pretend the playoffs weren’t a thing.

My observations from Sunday’s big win

Editor’s Note: These 10 Observations items are usually behind the paywall, but I’m keeping this one free because it’s the last game before the holidays. I thought I would feed off the positive vibes in the Avs room and the happy holiday week to come. Appreciate!

1. Speaking of splitting home and road, the Avalanche need to be 22-1-1 at home all the way to match their crazy 31 wins from a season ago. Granted, they only ended up winning 19 on the road last season and this year they’re already at 12 wins, not even halfway through their road schedule.

2. Total domination against Seattle. The teams have already completed their three-game series and Colorado easily won all three. It doesn’t matter what part of the season it was or who was in goal. Justus Annunen managed the first two games before Mackenzie Blackwood got the start on Sunday.

3. Big goal for Kiviranta in the second period. The eventual game-winning goal must have surprised Joey Daccord given that one of the NHL’s elite goal scorers, Mikko Rantanen, looked away to feed it to a bottom-six forward. Kiviranta has been excellent this season and plays his role well. His 10 goals are already a career high and we’re not even halfway through the season.

4. Speaking of which, five of Kiviranta’s 10 goals came against the Seattle Kraken. Kryptonite.

5. Don’t look now, but the Avalanche are closing in on the Minnesota Wild for second place in the division — even though fourth-place Dallas has games in hand against the Avs. But that’s what happens when you win three times in a row and the team ahead of you in the standings loses four times in a row in regulation. Most notably, the Avs have 21 wins. Only five teams have more for Monday’s games.

6. Nichushkin is back. Well, he’s back, but it took him a few games to get his footing back. Nichushkin didn’t record a point in his first three games, but has since scored 11 goals and added 5 assists for 16 points in as many games. He’s starting to look like the beast he was last season. Excellent news for the Avs.

7. The crowd loved Blackwood’s breakaway save five minutes into the third period. But what’s the problem with the jumbotron that hasn’t yet been installed with a song for it? Geor-gie chants occurred all the time, often led by whoever controlled the giant. Let’s start these new goalie chants. They deserve it.

8. When we entered the locker room after the match, Rantanen was coming out and pointed at Kiviranta, ordering him to stay. And then he gestured to the media and told us to go talk to Kivi, adding something like “he likes to speak English with you all.” Rantanen basically fed the media Kiviranta a few hours after giving him the puck during that two-on-one play. Funny moment. Looks like the guys are having fun again.

9. When asked about the line of Parker Kelly, Logan O’Connor and Kiviranta, Jared Bednar said it was a great fourth line and one that reminds him of the fourth line he won the Stanley Cup with. Which is true. I think this line has promise and can perform in the playoffs. Just one problem: This is currently the team’s third line. If Bednar really wants it to be the fourth line, then who plays on line 3?

10. It was the first time all season that Ball Arena felt like it was headed toward a playoff atmosphere. Congratulations to the fans present. We have a lot of home games coming up and I can’t wait to see things get heated.