Toews lifts Avs to needed victory

Defenseman’s late goal the difference against Coyoyes

There were moments Sunday afternoon that could have confounded the Colorado Avalanche, a club desperate to dig out of a recent slump.

Eventually, the Avs’ top players created one sequence of brilliance and it was enough for a muchneeded win. Devon Toews scored with 6:43 remaining on a shot set up by Nathan Mackinnon’s will and Jonathan Drouin’s skill, and the Avs prevailed with a 4-3 victory against the Arizona Coyotes.

“It’s never going to as smooth as you plan,” Avs coach Jared Bednar. “In order to be successful, you have to be mentally tough. There was never a sense that I had on the bench that we were fragmenting and going on our own way. That we weren’t sticking to the plan and trusting the process.”

This contest was filled with delays, penalties and coach’s challenges. The Avs controlled play for long stretches, but couldn’t separate from the pesky Coyotes. Colorado won for just the second time in seven tries since the Allstar break, and this was an important one after a disappointing road trip.

Mackinnon went behind the Coyotes’ net and was met by defenseman J.J. Moser, but the Avs superstar went through the attempted check and held onto the puck. He sent it into the slot for Drouin, whose deft one-touch play set up Toews for a blast from the left point.

“(This) was a much better effort, probably better than any game we played on the road trip,” Toews said. “We are just trying to get back to our game, consistently playing our game in our structure.”

There were significant bright spots. Bo Byram had his thirdstraight multi-point game. Jack Johnson had a goal and an assist. Mackinnon had a typically impactful, dominant effort and finished with two points.

There were also some concerns. The Avs have been plagued by momentary lapses after long stretches of carrying the play, and that happened again Sunday. Colorado also took too many penalties, got pulled out of alignment on the penalty kill for a goal and did not score despite copious chances with the man advantage.

Even though the Coyotes had lost eight straight, the Avs were left to hang on in the final minutes, including a 4-on-6 situation for the final 81 seconds.

“We’ve had tough games

against these guys all year,” Johnson said. “That didn’t surprise me. We knew it was going to be a tough night and they have some really good offensive players. We knew there had to be a big emphasis on defending.”

The Avs took an early lead when Miles Wood set up Ross Colton for his 12th goal of the season 4:10 into the first, but Coyotes defenseman Mathew Dumba scored on the rebound of a Alex Kerfoot shot and Lawson Crouse made it 2-1 with a power-play tally.

The Avalanche had lots of chances to score a power-play goal of its own in the second period. Colorado had eight minutes with the extra man, including a double-minor, and racked up 13 shots on net without scoring.

The second period was certainly a test of mental toughness. The Avs dominated the puck, racked up 21 shots on net and only yielded 0.2 expected goals. And yet it was still a 3-3 game after 40 minutes because the Coyotes converted one of the few chances they had.

Johnson had tied the game at 2-2 with a nifty spin and foray towards the net from the right point early in the period. Shortly Colorado botched a 3-on-2 while shorthanded, Arizona countered with a 4-on-2 just as a penalty on Mackinnon expired and Logan Cooley scored from between the circles.

Mackinnon got the Avs level for a second time with a goal 21 seconds later. Bryam set him up at the right post, but it took Mackinnon four whacks at the puck before it crossed the goal line. Arizona goalie Karel Vejmelka tried to pull it back into play, but Mackinnon helped the official nearby with a “good goal” signal of his own.

It was Mackinnon’s 33rd goal of the season, and he reached 90 points in his 56th game. That’s the fastest an Avalanche player has reached 90 points, and the fastest in franchise history since Peter Stastny had 90 in 56 in 1987-88 for the Quebec Nordiques.

Each team had a goal taken off the board by a coach’s challenge in the third period. Kerfoot was offsides when got behind the Avs defense, and Rantanen was well offsides before a Drouin goal that came on the first shift after the Coyotes’ goal was wiped out.