Bernier can’t catch a break
Goalie idle again, this time because he has an infection
Avalanche goalie Jonathan Bernier didn’t play for the 16th time in an 18-game span Saturday, this time because of an infection. Bernier missed 13 games of that stretch to head injuries, and Saturday — just two days after he played 27:33 in a loss to the visiting Los Angeles Kings — he was scratched because an upper-body cut became infected.
“So he wasn’t an option,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said.
The team recalled rookie Spencer Martin from San Antonio of the American Hockey League, just days after reassigning Martin when Bernier was cleared of his head injury.
Eleven and seven. The Avs played with a nontraditional 11 forwards and seven defensemen — partly because of the lowerbody injuries to forwards Sven Andrighetto and Colin Wilson. Colorado made forwards Nail Yakupov and Vladislav Kamenev healthy scratches so newly required Mark Alt could make his club debut as the seventh defenseman — as well as to give rookie forwards Tyson Jost, Alex Kerfoot and J.T. Compher more ice time.
“Some of those young guys — Kerfoot, Compher, Jost — when they’re playing and engaged in the game, I feel like they’re better. So we got them some extra shifts,” Bednar said. “We got (Nathan) Mackinnon, (Mikko) Rantanen, (Gabe) Landeskog some extra shifts, and it makes us a little bit of a more dynamic team. The second part of that is, Alt has looked really good in practice. Like the ways he moves the puck. Good details. Plays with pace. I want to make sure we’re not missing something there.”
Alt logged 10:58 on Saturday. He defended well and did not make any turnovers.
Bednar said Andrighetto and Wilson are day to day. “I don’t have a time frame on them,” the coach said. “We’ll just see how they feel on a daily basis and try to get them back on the ice.”
Footnotes. Colorado is 26-10-2 at the Pepsi Center, tied for the third-most home victories in club history. The record is 28 (200001), followed by 27 (2007-08). The 2013-14 Avalanche also had 26 home wins. The Avs have three more regular-season games at the Pepsi Center. … Colorado finished 6-4-2 in day games this season, including 5-1-1 at home. … Secondline center Carl Soderberg, who returned from a two-game absence because of illness, notched his 16th goal of the season, matching a career high set as a rookie in 2013-14 with the Boston Bruins.