BLOWN OPPORTUNITY
Colorado falls 5-2 to Nashville
NASHVILLE, TENN.» Against the NHL’S most penalized team Saturday night, play developed favorably for the Avalanche at Bridgestone Arena. Nashville couldn’t stay out of the penalty box in the first period, and the Avs — coming off a sensational offensive performance against Washington on Thursday — were in excellent position to take the crowd out of the equation by capitalizing on the Predators’ numerous miscues.
Instead, Nashville’s continuous success on the penalty kill riled up the Predators and their sellout crowd, and after killing off 11 minutes worth of Colorado’s powerplay time, Nashville cashed in on the Avs’ first penalty for the game’s first goal and went on to defeat Colorado for the eighth consecutive time.
It was a night of blown opportunities for the Avalanche, which lost 5-2 in falling to 3-7 on the road. Colorado was 0-for-7 on the power play, and its penalty kill was just 2-of-4. Nashville (11-6-2), the defending Western Conference champion, has outscored the Avs 34-15 in its eight-game winning streak.
“There’s a reason why they went to the Stanley Cup Final last year,” Avalanche left wing and team captain Gabe Landeskog said of the Preds. “If we score on the power play in the first period to take the lead, I think it would have been a different game. Unfortunately we didn’t. Just a missed an opportunity there — basically the whole first period we had a manadvantage and just didn’t capitalize. We created scoring chances and whatnot, but (goalie Pekka) Rinne made the saves when they needed them. And our PK wasn’t good enough.”
Colorado (9-8-1), ranked No. 4 in NHL scoring at 3.47 goals-per game, had 14:58 worth of powerplay time through two periods, including 11:00 in the first period. It failed to capitalize on a brief 5on-3 advantage and Austin Watson’s five-minute-major penalty for boarding.
The Predators’ Craig Smith scored a power-play goal at 19:25 of the first period, and teammates Colton Sissons and Anthony Bitetto struck for goals within 1:27 of each other midway through the second period in taking a 3-0 lead.
Mattias Ekholm beat goalie Semyon Varlamov for a power-play goal at 7:53 of the third period, and Viktor Arvidsson scored in a 6on-5 delayed penalty situation to make it 5-0 at 11:51 and further embarrass the Avs.
With 4:37 remaining, Avalanche rookie defenseman Andrei Mironov beat goalie Pekka Rinne for his first career NHL goal. J.T. Compher added his second goal of the season with 1:45 left.
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar wasn’t overly down on his team, which entered the game with the NHL’S ninth-ranked power play at 21.7 percent.
“Early in the game, the first couple power plays, we had some decent looks at the net,” Bednar said. “One thing we didn’t do is get in front of Rinne for the screens. He was seeing them. We had a couple dangerous chances. He made some good saves, but the entries and breakouts, we were a little stubborn on that five-minute power play. We just didn’t execute.”
He added: “I liked our guys’ pregame skate and our mind-set coming into this one. I liked the way we stuck with it, but special teams — the power play — frustrated some of our top guys. The turning point was the penalty kill at the end of the first period. They get that one. So we end up going 0-for-3 in (11) minutes of power-play time and the frustration is setting in a little bit, and then they score on their first chance at the power play.”