BERNIER TO RESCUE
Goalie shuts out Jackets 2-0
Teenagers Tyson Jost and Sam Girard assisted on the game-winning goal scored by 21-year-old Mikko Rantanen, so suffice to say the Avalanche’s youngsters outplayed their peers from the Columbus Blue Jackets in a game between two of the NHL’s three youngest teams.
Rantanen’s power-play goal and goalie Jonathan Bernier’s 34 saves carried Colorado to a 2-0 victory over the Blue Jackets on Thursday night at the Pepsi Center.
In winning its fourth consecutive game, Colorado improved to 4-1 on its six-game homestand and 9-3-1 in its last 13 games. Bernier, who regularly backs up the injured Semyon Varlamov, needed 17 third-period saves to produce his second shutout of the season.
The Avalanche is now 21-16-3 — just a win shy of what it produced all of last season. The Blue Jackets fell to 23-16-3.
“We managed to stay with it and didn’t give away many grade-A chances,” Rantanen said. “‘Bernie’ played great at the net. They’re a great team with probably the best goalie in the NHL right now. So it’s a huge win for us.
Matt Nieto scored with 1:35 remaining while Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was trying to skate back to protect his net. Bobrovsky skated to the bench for a sixth attacker, but the Avs gained possession and went on the counter-attack. Nieto just beat the diving Bobrovsky to scored what will go down as Colorado’s 11th empty-net goal of the season.
Rantanen scored 12:48 into the second period. Rantanen’s wrist shot from the right circle nicked off Blue Jackets defenseman Scott Harrington.and then off the arm of Bobrovsky. Rantanen said his game-winning shot was actually a pass.
“I was looking for Landy backdoor,” Rantanen said of linemate Gabe Landeskog. “Good play by Josty and G (Girard) to get it over to me. I was just trying to slide it over backdoor and this time it took a bounce off the D.”
He added: “It’s a lot of fun to play right now. Four (wins) in a row and that’s what you need to do if you want to make the playoffs. You have to get a streak going and that’s what we’re doing. But we can’t get too comfortable. We have to keep working hard.”
The Avalanche outshot Columbus 14-7 after the first period and 25-17 after the second. But the Blue Jackets dominated most of the third, posting 16 of the first 17 shots before Colorado pushed back and produced six of the game’s last seven shots.
“I thought we did a good job defending,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “They throw pucks at the net from all kinds of angles and then they get traffic in there. I thought Berns did a real nice job of making the first save and he was either smothering the puck or using his stick to clear it. He had numerous ones that were laying there and was active with his hands and kept it out of the danger area — which is real important, especially the way they crash the net.”
The Avs complete their sixgame homestand Saturday against the Minnesota Wild on a night Milan Hejduk will have his No. 23 sweater retired to the rafters.