Grubauer delivers as Avs keep division title hopes alive
J.T. Compher scored at 11:33 of the third period to give the Avalanche its first lead of the game Monday night and Colorado hung on behind goalie Philipp Grubauer to defeat the Golden Knights 2-1 at T-Mobile Arena.
The win in the Avs’ final road game of the regular season keeps them in the race for the West Division title and Presidents’ Trophy with the NHL’s best record. Vegas would have won both with a victory.
Colorado (37-13-4) now trails Vegas (39-13-2) by two points in the division standings, with a game in hand. The Avs have home games against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday and Thursday to conclude the regular season.
Third-place Minnesota (3514-5, 75 points) finishes with two games Wednesday and Thursday against the already identified No. 4 seed, the St. Louis Blues (24-20-9).
Monday night’s game was tied 1-1 after two periods despite Vegas outshooting the Avs 29-13, including 15-4 in the second period.
But Colorado scored the only goal in the middle frame, with winger Andre Burakovsky using his potent wrist shot to beat goalie Robin Lehner at 7:04.
Vegas only used 15 skaters, three fewer than normal, because of salary cap restrictions and injuries. Forward Max Pacioretty, the Knights’ second-leading scorer, and defenseman Alec Martinez were among the scratches. Martinez had played in all 53 previous games.
Vegas opened the scoring 8:11 into the game. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo jumped on a juicy rebound from the right circle and hammered the puck past Grubauer. Minutes later, Knights forward Alex Tuch shot wide on an open-net tap-in opportunity on a 2-on-1 rush.
Grubauer finished with 36 saves on 37 shots from Vegas, including several key saves on penalty kills.
In addition to winning the division and the Presidents’ Trophy, the game was about playoff seeding as it relates to home-ice advantage for the playoffs.
The Avs currently have limited capacity at Ball Arena (currently 22%, approximately 4,050 fans). Vegas has moved to 50% capacity (approximately 9,200 fans) at T-Mobile Arena and Minnesota will move to 25% (approximately 4,500 fans) at Xcel Energy Center to begin the postseason.
Vegas, Colorado and Minnesota each have won at least 20 games at home, and none have reached 20 wins on the road. So, despite limited seating, Avs coach Jared Bednar noted that there is a real advantage — particularly because his club is 14-0-1 in its last 15 games at home.
“The importance of it is our home record and how we’ve played at home and how our guys feel at home and the type of game that we play,” he said.
“I think it’s been outstanding. That’s not exclusive to us. If you look at Vegas’ home record, what Minny has done at home. There are big swings in home and road (records).
“The reason that we want home ice more so than anything is because it was a goal that we set out for at the start of the season, to try to give ourselves every advantage, and whether that advantage is big or small we’d like to be able to take advantage of that any way we can.”
Footnotes. Bednar said defenseman Sam Girard and forward Brandon Saad continue to skate in Denver and are candidates to return from lowerbody injuries this week. Rookie defenseman Bo Byram (concussion) is also skating but his timetable is unclear. Forwards Matt Calvert (upperbody) and Logan O’Connor (lower-body) are “not in the foreseeable future for us to get back in the lineup,” Bednar said. … Forward Sampo Ranta was added to the Avs’ taxi squad from the Colorado Eagles. Ranta, 20, signed with the Avalanche after his junior year at the University of Minnesota on April 3. The Finn has six points (three goals) in 12 games with the Eagles.