Grubauer sharp in Avs’ win
Colorado holds on despite Arizona’s late rally
DENVER — The crippling and condensed NHL schedule won’t allow Avalanche coach Jared Bednar to give goalie Philipp Grubauer many four-day breaks, but if Monday night’s 4-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes was any indication, he should at least tr y.
A spectator during a weekend sweep at Anaheim, Grubauer stopped 35 shots as the Avalanche won for the ninth time in 11 games and the 16th time in 19 games.
The Avalanche (28-9-4) stand at 62 points, best in the league and the most through 42 games in team history.
When last seen, Grubauer was allowing 11 goals over two games last week at Minnesota. But from the hop against Arizona, he was on his game, showing good rebound control in stopping the first 26 shots he faced.
Down 3-0, the Coyotes got third-period goals from Michael Bunting and Johan Larsson less than three minutes apar t to create an anxious finish until Mikko Rantanen’s empty-net goal from a few strides inside his zone with 1:57 remaining sealed the Avs’ win.
The Avs needed solid goaltending because their of fense was
uncharacteristically held in check. The 20 shots were a season-low (the previous low was 24), well below their league-leading average of 35.3 per game.
Rantanen scored twice and Brandon Saad and Nathan Mackinnon had one goal apiece. Cale Makar had two assists.
The game featured a strong pace to start, but that was eliminated by a replay stoppage. Following a long review, the Coyotes were awarded a goal following a scramble in Grubauer’s crease. Bednar challenged the play on the grounds of goalie interference. Following another long review, the goal was taken off the board.
Less than four minutes later, the Avs made it 1-0 on Saad’s 13th goal. A clean faceoff win by center Tyson Jost sent the puck back to defenseman Sam Girard, who skated along the blue line before cutting toward the goal and backhanding a feed to Saad, who was open in the slot. Saad also used the backhand to beat goalie Ivan Prosvetov (making his first NHL start) to the high glove side.
A mostly stagnant second period (one shot in first eight minutes) was uplifted by Mackinnon’s power play strike at the 9:08 mark to make it 2-0. Unlike their first power play (one shot), the Avs’ top unit never left the Arizona zone and cashed in when Makar fed Mackinnon for the one-timer from the right faceoff circle.
The teams traded unsuccessful power plays (one shot apiece) and Grubauer kept the two-goal lead with a fine stop on defenseman Oliver Ekmann-larsson’s snap shot from the high slot. At that point, Arizona had outshot the Avs 21-14.
Moments later, though, the lead swelled to 3-0 with 1:57 remaining in the second when Rantanen’s shot from just beyond the crease went off EkmannLarsson’s right shin pad and past Prosvetov.
NEW YORK — Julius Randle had 34 points and 10 rebounds against his former team and the New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night for their third straight victory.
Coming off tense finishes against Memphis and Toronto, the Knicks led comfortably for much of the fourth quarter and moved back above .500 at 28-27.
Elfrid Payton scored 20 points and Derrick Rose added 14 off the bench for the Knicks, who had plenty of energy on the second night of backto-back games.
Dennis Schroder scored 21 points and Markieff Morris had 17 for the Lakers, who fell to 5-7 since Lebron James sprained his ankle March 20, joining fellow All-star Anthony Davis on the sideline.
DALLAS — Joel Embiid scored 36 points and the Philadelphia 76ers wrapped up a long stretch of mostly road games with a victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Embiid made all six of his free throws in the first four-plus minutes and was 14 of 15 from the line as the 76ers finished 8-4 while playing 10 of 12 games on the road going into their final regular-season meeting with Brooklyn.
Philadelphia took a half-game lead atop the Eastern Conference over the Nets, whose game at Minnesota was called off because of the shooting death of a Black man by police in the Minneapolis area.
Luka Doncic scored 32 points but the young Dallas star didn’t have enough help with European sidekick Kristaps Porzingis sitting out the second night of a back-to-back four days after playing in one for the first time in two months.
The Dallas debut of JJ Redick wasn’t much of a boost either. The veteran shooting guard had been recovering from a right heel injury since being acquired from New Orleans at the trade deadline more than two weeks ago in hopes of boosting the Mavericks at the 3point line. three quarters, Dejounte Murray added 17 and the San Antonio Spurs routed the slumping Orlando Magic.
San Antonio was playing a night after winning in Dallas on a lastsecond shot by Derozan, and it showed no signs of fatigue in cruising to the easy win. The Spurs’ victories Sunday and Monday gave them their first consecutive wins since a three-game streak from March 15-19.
Prior to tipoff, the teams, coaching staffs and refereeing crew came together and formed a circle at midcourt with their arms interlocked and their heads bowed to show their displeasure over the fatal shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, by police during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb. Spurs coach
Gregg Popovich and Magic coach Steve Clifford stood side by side with their arms interlocked during the anthem.
The Spurs, who beat the Magic 104-77 on March 12 and topped Orlando for a third straight time, wiped out an early six-point deficit and broke the game open by the latter stages of the first period. They led 60-37 at the half, by 30 during the third quarter and didn’t allowed their lead fall below 20 throughout the second half.
Derozan made 7 of 11 shots for a Spurs squad that shot 51.6%. Derozan added six assists for the Spurs, who pulled within a halfgame of the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference.