Adrian Dater
EDMONTON, ALBERTA – It won’t be a sweep, at least. Avs win 6-4 in a crazy game. Let’s do some grades:
Gabe Landeskog (B+) – Scored a critical goal, one that gave the Avs a 3-1 lead in the second period. But he took a bit of a bad penalty in the third period, elbowing Jamie Benn in the head. Landeskog is to be commended for trying to stick up for teammate Nathan MacKinnon, whom Benn tried to run right before that with a big hit. But you gotta pick your spots better. Led all players with 12 hits.
Nathan MacKinnon (B+) – Two assists for Nate, and five shots on goal. He has now set an Avalanche franchise record with points in the first 11 playoff games.
Mikko Rantanen (B+) – A huge goal to tie the game 4-4. The Avs could have packed it in when it was 4-3, but Mikko was one of the ones who kept battling. He also had a great hit on Miro Heiskanen that knocked him off the puck and led to the empty-net goal that put the game away.
Andre Burakovsky (B) – Scored a real pretty goal that gave the Avs a 2-1 lead. Only played a little more than 13 minutes otherwise. He did have five hits, though.
Nazem Kadri (A-) – He scored the game-winner, a great tip of a Kevin Connauton shot. He was physical and nasty and just the kind of guy he needs to be against this team, instead of the guy trying to play too nice in the first two.
Valeri Nichushkin (C+) – No points again, but he skated hard and was a plus-1. The hit judge was very generous, as Big Val was credited with eight. Not sure I remember him as that physical, but the Avs were credited with 72 overall, after getting 29 in Game 2.
Tyson Jost (C) – No points, no shots in a little more than 10 minutes. Against the bigger Stars, he’s been knocked off the puck a few times. He’s still in search of a role with this team.
J.T. Compher (C+) – Can’t seem to find the score sheet right now, but he did win 9-of-11 faceoffs.
Vladislav Namestnikov (C-) – Bad penalty to end the second period put the Avs on their heels to start the third and the Avs almost didn’t recover. He did almost score a goal in the second period, and was a bit more active at least.
Matt Nieto (B) – A good, solid fourth-line effort. He still drives me insane sometimes, though, with failed clearouts on the PK. He had another couple of those tonight. But he was solid defensively overall and worked hard.
Logan O’Connor (B+) – I thought he was pretty effective in emergency relief of Joonas Donskoi. He had some hits and was good on the forecheck. Was credited with four hits.
P.E. Bellemare (B+) – Scored an empty-net goal and won 11-of-19 faceoffs. That works as a fourth-line center.
Cale Makar (A) – Three assists, six hits and three blocked shots. The Avs blocked four shots in Game 2. Tonight, they blocked 25. Ergo, they worked harder.
Ryan Graves (B+) – A plus-2, four shots on net and five blocked shots in a little more than 24 minutes. Solid game.
Ian Cole (B) – Atoned somewhat from that horrible Game 2. Had an assist and played 22 hard minutes. Still needs to work on that puck-clearing game on the PK.
Nikita Zadorov (A) – Scored the goal that woke the Avs out of their funk, tying the game 1-1 and he had a lot of good, hard hits on various Stars. Couldn’t play the third period because of some injury.
Kevin Connauton (B-) – Couple of rough moments, and he went to the penalty box twice, but he got the primary assist on the game-winning goal and worked hard in his own end. He’s been better than expected in place of Erik Johnson.
Sam Girard (B+) – Carried the puck effectively tonight in playing nearly 25 minutes.
Pavel Francouz (C+) – You know what, he made some really, really good saves in this thing. He finished with 33 overall. But he misjudged the situation on Dallas’ first goal and allowed three quick ones from pretty long range in the third period. His team bailed him out this time.