Avalanche: Colorado’s 4-3 overtime loss to Vegas drops them to No. 2 seed; they will face Arizona in first round of playoffs.
The Avalanche, the team many see as the Western Conference favorite, must settle for second to begin the Stanley Cup playoffs.
With the conference’s No. 1 seed up for grabs in their roundrobin finale Saturday, the Avs never led but rallied to force overtime before losing 4-3 in sudden-death to the Vegas Golden Knights at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
“We didn’t execute to our best ability,” Avs star center Nathan Mackinnon said after leading a 35-shot attack. “We feel like we have another gear. (Not) to take away anything from them, but we felt like we could have buried more of our chances and put the game away.”
Vegas will be the No. 1 seed and open a best-of-seven series against No. 8 Chicago. The No. 2 Avs will open against No. 7 Arizona.
The traditional 16-team tournament begins Tuesday and will be finalized Sunday.
Colorado went 1-1 against the Coyotes this season, but the teams haven’t played since Nov. 2.
“It would have been nice to win. We didn’t. Now we’re moving on,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said after Saturday’s game. “Through the course of training camp (last month) and the round-robin especially, I think we’ve just played three solid hockey games. We won two and lost one. If I could pick one thing it would be consistency. We weren’t as good tonight as we were in the first two games.”
Mackinnon, Joonas Donskoi and J.T. Compher scored for the Avs, who finished 2-1 (five points) in the round-robin. Vegas went 3-0 (six points).
The Avalanche, trailing 3-2 late in the third period, tied it with Compher’s gritty goal from the doorstep at 18:58 and goalie Philipp Grubauer on the bench for an extra attacker.
With just 15.9 seconds remaining in OT, Alex Tuch beat Grubauer with a wrist shot from the left circle. The Knights outshot the Avs 3-1 in OT.
Jonathan Marchessault scored twice for the Golden Knights, the latter on a penalty shot for a 3-2 lead early in the third period. He was tripped on a breakaway by defenseman Ryan Graves.
“Obviously, losing today (stinks) but we’re the No. 2 seed in the West,” Mackinnon said. “We’re feeling good heading into the first round.”
Regarding the Coyotes, who stood five points out of a playoff spot when the NHL paused its season March 12, Mackinnon said: “It’s a huge challenge. They’re a very good team, well structured. Got some good offense. It’s going to be a tough series. We’ll do our homework tomorrow and Monday and I don’t know when we’re going to play, but we’ll be well-prepared and ready to go for Game 1.”
Footnotes. Grubauer played in two of the three round-robin games, but Bednar declined to say that he will be the starter in Game 1 against Arizona. Pavel Francouz backstopped Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Dallas. … Rookie defenseman Cale Makar led the Avs in ice time at 24:08. … Second-line center Nazem Kadri and first-line right winger Mikko Rantanen led the Avs with four points in the round-robin. Eight Avs players scored but nobody more than once. … The Avs and Coyotes (then the Phoenix Coyotes) last met in the playoffs in 2000, with Colorado winning the conference quarterfinal series 4-1.