Reagan Smith
When life is good, life is goooood. Fresh off of a 7-1-1 homestand, the Colorado Avalanche took the trip out to Glendale, Ariz. for a quick back-to-back against the Arizona Coyotes. The change of scenery didn’t seem to make too much of a difference, though, as the Avs handled the desert dogs by a score of 5-1 en route to their seventh straight victory.
From the opening faceoff, it was apparent that the Avalanche were going to have to adapt to the Coyotes’ slower style of play. And for a lot of the first period, the Coyotes dictated the speed of the game.
“We came out, we were skating pretty well,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “I just didn’t think that we were physically engaged enough in the game just for the first eight to ten minutes. We weren’t doing a very good job on our forecheck eliminating their D and causing turnovers to play.”
It wasn’t until the final half of the first period that the Avalanche reemerged as the team that has been so dominant as of late. A J.T. Compher dump in set in motion the scoring sequence where Pierre-Edouard Bellemare netted his first non-empty-net goal of the season.
A minute and six seconds later, the RML line all extended their point streaks on a beauty of a Mikko Rantanen snipe. It was pretty much game over after that.
Over the course of the game, Rantanen, Bellemare, Nazem Kadri, and Joonas Donskoi all nabbed themselves a goal… Actually, Donskoi grabbed two.
One of the major things that stood out tonight was the prevalence of the lower lines in generating offense. Donskoi especially should be of particular focus. Minus his two goals, tonight, Donskoi also co-led the team with Tyson Jost in shots with five. Donskoi has eight points in his last five games.
Speaking of Jost, the young forward also had himself a night, having the original shot that Donskoi’s skate deflected in, as well as saucing a perfect pass to Donskoi for his second assist of the game. Jost has been grinding hard all year and it’s good to see him get rewarded for it.
“It’s really good to see,” Rantanen said. “He’s a great player. He’s a very valuable player for us. He works hard, he plays a lot of penalty kill minutes[…] I’m happy to see him get a couple goals in the last couple games and make those nice plays.”
With the exception of the Rantanen goal, the top line was definitely less noticeable than what anyone would like to see. Yet, the Avs were cruising throughout much of the game. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them firing on all cylinders tomorrow night.
On the goaltending front, Grubauer (yet again) had himself another game that just makes you want to tip your hat to him. With a league-best 1.74 goals allowed average, Grubi proved just why he leads the league when he had to deal with a firey final push by the Coyotes. He stood tall — saving 11 of 12 third period shots and 24 of Arizona’s 25 total shots.
Grubauer has not allowed an even-strength goal since he took over in net to start the second period against Anaheim.
When asked about the mass shooting in Boulder, Colo. today, Bednar revealed that he didn’t find out about it until after the game had finished.
“After the game, we got news that there was a shooting. Another needless event that is just sad and tragic. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and the community of Boulder and everyone affected by that. I think it’s hard news to hear, especially when it’s so close to home.”
The Avalanche finish their mini road trip with the Coyotes tomorrow night at 8 p.m. MST.