Avs won’t get any injured/ sick players back for elimination game
The Avalanche, down 3- 1 to the Dallas Stars and facing elimination in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinal series, won’t likely get any of its four injured/ sick players back Monday night in Edmonton.
Following Game 4’ s 5- 4 loss at Rogers Place, Avs coach Jared Bednar said defenseman Erik Johnson and forwards Matt Calvert and Joonas Donskoi won’t play Monday. It’s assumed that goalie Philipp Grubauer is done for the series and possibly the rest of the playoffs.
“They’re not ready. They’re not an option for us,” Bednar said of Johnson, Calvert and Donskoi. “We’re not going to play injured players that can’t play. We have what we have. Injuries never help you and we have to find a way without them.”
Calvert, who played in all five games of the first- round series against Arizona, hasn’t played in the Dallas series. Grubauer and Johnson each went down in Game 1. Donskoi has missed the last two games against the Stars.
The Avs, who cannot say whether a player is sick or injured, will again rely on depth players helping them extend the series.
“We’re just trying to ( win) Game 5, and make it 3- 2 and go from there,” Avs center Nathan MacKinnon said. “We can’t win three games in one day so we’re going to take it step- by- step and get that win tomorrow.”
Make it 12. MacKinnon had an assist on Cale Makar’s powerplay goal that got Colorado within 3- 2 in the second period. MacKinnon extended his playoff
points streak to 12 games, the longest in club history and longest overall in the NHL since 2010 when Chicago’s Jonathan Toews had a 13- game streak and Detroit’s Johan Franzen had points in 12 straight.
MacKinnon, who has points in every postseason game this year, has a league- high 21 points this postseason and 50 career playoff points, tied with Chris Drury and Alex Tanguay for 11th in Avalanche history.
Momentum. The Avalanche and Stars have had momentum shifts of massive proportions in this series. Dallas has had a few more in
winning three of the first four games.
“That’s sports for you,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said after Sunday’s back- and- forth affair. “Momentum is going to go that way. When one team’s up, the other team is going to push back and that’s what we did in the second — we were able to score two quick ones. We were knocking on the door to get that third tying goal.”
And then Dallas struck twice, followed by two Avalanche goals.
“We have to be better defensively, no doubt,” Landeskog said.
Footnotes. Avs second- line center Nazem Kadri took two penalties in the first period Sunday and Dallas scored on both power plays. Kadri, who did not commit a penalty in the first- round series against Arizona, has six penalties in the series against the Stars. … Defenseman Ryan Graves had a team- high seven shots in Game 4, one more than Kadri. … Makar logged a team- high 22: 42 and had five shots. MacKinnon dubbed the 21- year- old rookie the league’s best defenseman. … Colorado was credited with 36 hits Sunday, half of its club- record 72 in Game 3. … Dallas blocked 22 shots Sunday, compared to just nine for the Avs.