Good & Bad: Avalanche’s Offense Falters in Loss to Habs Rookie Goalie

DENVER — In one of the more low-event games of the season, the Avalanche let the Montreal Canadiens hang around for too long. The result, a 2-1 shootout loss after the game-tying goal was given up on a broken play late in regulation.

Colorado scored first but saw its six-game winning streak end. Despite playing an extra five minutes of overtime, the Avalanche had just a 24-23 shot advantage.

“We didn’t do a good enough job creating offense,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “Pretty low event hockey game from our standards.”

The only excitement came in overtime. The Avs started the short period with the tail end of a power play. Kaiden Guhle came out of the box for the Habs and had a breakaway opportunity but was stopped by Avs netminder Mackenzie Blackwood.

Blackwood made 22 saves but only stopped one of three in the shootout. Both Cole Caufield and Kirby Dach scored for the Habs. Rantanen and Jonathan Drouin were stopped at the other end.

“I don’t like shootouts,” Blackwood said.

Colorado then was called for a penalty after Artturi Lehkonen went barreling into Jakub Dobes after the rookie netminder made a breakaway save. The Avs killed that penalty and even gave Lehkonen a second breakaway chance shortly after exiting the box.

Dobes stopped him again.

Rantanen had the Avalanche’s lone regulation goal, putting them ahead at 9:01 on the team’s second power-play opportunity. Colorado finished 1-for-5 on the man advantage, which included an opportunity late in regulation that didn’t amount to much of anything.

The Habs didn’t have much going for them offensively either. At nearly the half way point of the game, they had just four shots on goal. But they slowly started to turn it on and eventually took advantage of a rare Devon Toews misplay to turn a Colorado 3-on-2 into a 2-on-1 for them.

Caufield got the pass from Nick Suzuki and put it in to end Blackwood’s shutout bid with just 6:35 remaining.

“We just didn’t make a play. The execution recognition wasn’t there,” Bednar said. “But it’s a mistake. It happens.”

Defensively, both teams played well. Montreal did an excellent job of getting sticks in shooting lanes to negate several opportunities for the Avs. Colorado also had a strong defensive effort despite the lack of offensive chances.

Two of the NHL’s top offensive teams were shutdown for pretty much 65 minutes of action.

“We were defensively responsible, checked hard against a team that’s tops the league right now in creating offense,” Bednar said.

Bad: Does anybody know what goalie interference is?

The referees officiating this game were not the same ones who were at Ball Arena two nights earlier. But everything about the goalie interference calls on Ross Colton and Lehkonen reaffirmed Bednar’s thoughts about inconsistencies from game to game. Sure, he was talking about blowing a play dead, but this is another great example.

Colton broke in on the breakaway and was shoved into the goalie after trying to re-route from the crease following the save by Dobes. The goalie stayed down for a moment but was able to stay in the game.

And Lehkonen was handed the same penalty in OT after crashing the crease following a failed scoring chance on the breakaway.

“I thought we got pushed in on both of them. In fact, I thought we were getting a power play on the first one,” Bednar said. “I don’t know how they’re supposed to stop. It’s not like he’s cutting in at an angle. The guy’s behind him, putting the pressure on him and makes contact in both cases.

“Try it, 100 times out of 100, you’re not stopping when a guy hits you from behind coming down on a breakaway. It’s not going to happen.”

These calls came two nights after Zach Benson was shoved by Parker Kelly into Scott Wedgewood after making a wrong turn near the crease.

Colton received a penalty. Lehkonen received a penalty. Benson received the easiest goal he’ll probably ever score. These are not the same. But they should’ve been.

Good: Climbing the franchise PP ranks

Rantanen’s tally was his 100th career power-play goal. He’s seventh in the NHL since 2016-17 when he played his first full season. Of all the guys ahead of him, only Steven Stamkos has played fewer than the 601 games Rantanen is at.

In terms of franchise ranks, he’s slowly climbing the ladder and has a chance to solidify his spot in team history — assuming he signs a new contract. Rantanen is fifth, trailing Joe Sakic (205), Michel Goulet (146), Milan Hejduk (140), and Peter Stastny (120).

Nathan MacKinnon is on his tail with 96. If the duo remain together for the next decade, they could realistically round out the top three with Sakic when all is said and done.