Colorado slips again with 3rd-period woes Edmonton puts game away with two late goals
OILERS 4, AVALANCHE 1
edmonton, alberta» Over the past few weeks, the Avalanche has had trouble putting together a full 60-minute effort.
There have been some monumental collapses that featured some third-period disasters during that span too.
On Saturday night at Rogers Place, the Avs put together a solid effort, but once again, the team struggled in the third period and the Avalanche dropped a 4-1 decision to the Edmonton Oilers.
Beniot Pouliot, Leon Draisaitl scored first-period goals, while Drake Caggiula and Ryan NugentHopkins scored in the third period for the Oilers to put the game away.
Trade deadline acquisition Sven Andrighetto scored his third goal as a member of the Avalanche in the loss.
Despite giving up four goals, Calvin Pickard was solid in the loss, making 25 saves, while Laurent Brossoit made 24 saves to collect his third win for Edmonton.
In Thursday’s loss to Edmonton, the Avalanche gave up five goals in the third period, including three in the final 2:10, and the Oilers continued that trend early on.
Pouliot scored his eighth goal of the season after tipping home a blast from Oilers rookie defenseman Matthew Benning to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead just 1:54 into the contest.
Colorado answered right back as Andrighetto tied it at 1-1 just 45 seconds later. The speedy Swiss winger took a feed from defenseman Mark Barberio and blew by Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson and tucked home his fifth goal of the year through the five-hole of Brossoit.
Oilers power forward Patrick Maroon left the game in the first period after taking a vicious crosscheck from Avalanche defenseman Francois Beauchemin in front of the Avs net.
Caggiula took his spot on the Oilers top line with Connor McDavid and he contributed on his first shift.
Caggiula fed Draisaitl with a cross-ice feed from the top of the circle and Draisaitl made no mistake one-timing a blast past Pickard at the 10:47 mark giving the Oilers the lead for good.
Maroon returned to the game in the second period and almost gave Edmonton a two-goal lead with five minutes remaining in the second, but Pickard stretched across with a right pad save to deny the Oilers bruising winger his 26th goal of the year.
After 40 minutes, Colorado was hanging with the upstart Oilers, as they only found themselves down by a single goal.
One strong shift could change the momentum, but after some good scoring opportunities came up empty early in the third, Edmonton took advantage of Colorado the rest of the way with two power-play markers to put the game out of reach.
Caggiula tipped home a Nugent-Hopkins feed from the slot at the 8:46 mark, while NugentHopkins would score his 16th goal of the season with 4:26 remaining.