Grin and Barrie it
Players, fans have reason to smile as hot start continues
An offensive attack not seen in years at the Pepsi Center continued to develop Friday night.
By dominating possession, limiting turnovers, using tremendous speed and creating second chances on seemingly every rush, the Avalanche played a thrilling brand of hockey before an appreciative, longsuffering crowd.
The Anaheim Ducks were severely winged.
Colorado, however, failed to capitalize on 6-of-8 power plays and had two disallowed goals because of goaltender interference before skating away with a tight triumph.
A power-play goal by Avs defenseman Tyson Barrie broke a 1-1 tie at 14:21 of the third period and led to a 3-1 victory after a 190-foot empty-net goal by defenseman Nikita Zadorov with 0.5 seconds left.
Suddenly, the 2016-17 lastplace Avalanche is 4-1 and looking like a playoff contender.
After the game, a thought-tobe serious injury to standout center Nathan MacKinnon wasn’t as bad as suspected. He left the game in the first period with an eye injury caused by a high stick by the Ducks’ Derek Grant, who was trying to lift MacKinnon’s stick beside the Anaheim net. No pentalty was called.
Avs coach Jared Bednar said MacKinnon should be fine and play Saturday in Dallas. “He had some vision problems immediately after, but right now things have settled down and he should be good to go for tomorrow,” Bednar said.
Said Avs captain Gabe Landeskog: “We were scared for him there. Really scared for him. Let alone losing him for the game or for the season, it’s the rest of your life. You only have two eyes.”
Former Ducks goalie Jonathan
Bernier got the start for Colorado, which outshot Anaheim 30-8 through two periods. The Avs appeared to go ahead 2-0 in the second period, but forward Blake Comeau was called for goalie interference on Reto Berra before linemate Matt Nieto shot the puck past Berra, a former Av.
The Avs used their coach’s challenge to try to overturn the call on the ice, but instead only lost their timeout as the call stood.
In the third period, after the Ducks tied it 1-1 with a shorthanded goal, Alex Kerfoot’s goal was disallowed because referees ruled Kerfoot interfered with Berra before a shot from the point caromed in the net off Kerfoot’s back. Colorado might have overturned the call with a coach’s challenge but had already used it.
Bernier improved to 1-1, and the Avs are now 2-0 at home. “Last two games have been pretty easy for the goalies, especially tonight,” Bernier said.
Injury-plagued Anaheim played without a handful of its best players: forwards Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler and defensemen Kevin Bieksa, Sami Vantanen and Hampus Lindholm.
But the Ducks stayed in the game with their penalty kill and a short-handed goal by Brandon Montour early in the third period.
“I liked a lot of what we did,” Bednar said. “No. 1, we were skating tonight. We were skating back into our zone, getting give guys in there to break out and we did that cleanly a lot. And then up ice, we were relentless on the puck. We created power plays. We created secondary opportunities by tracking the puck, forcing turnovers and stealing pucks. We were skating and we were relentless on it.”