GLENDALE, Ariz. The Colorado Avalanche like how
theyre playing against some of the NHL better teams this month. Theyll find out
Saturday night how they match up against the league worst-record team. The
Avalanche remain stuck in last place in the Central Division, but theyve
regained a bit of momentum the last couple of weeks after beginning December
with four consecutive losses. Theyve beaten Pittsburgh and Florida twice,
dropped a free-flowing 6-5 game against NHL points-leading Tampa Bay and given
up a late lead during a 2-1 overtime loss at Western Conference leader Los
Angeles that was encouraging except for the result.Article continues below ...
The challenge for the Avalanche is to not overlook the Arizona Coyotes in the
first matchup of the season between the two Western Conference teams. That could
be easy to do, given the Coyotes 8-24-5 record after all, the Washington
Capitals appeared to do exactly that during a 3-2 overtime loss at Arizona on
Friday. The Capitals came in with a four-game winning streak, eight wins in nine
games and one of the NHL best offenses, yet managed only 17 shots while losing
despite owning leads of 1-0 and 2-1
https://www.avalancheapparelshop.com/Patrick_Roy_Jersey-16.
Arizona rookie center Clayton Keller won it by scoring off his own rebound with
27 seconds left in overtime. That a world class team, theyve got Hall of Famers
over there, and for me I liked our defensive effort, coach Rick Tocchet said
after his team won for only the second time in 12 games since Nov. 24. We played
a very responsible game. We cashed in our chances at the end, and it nice to be
on the other side of that, Tocchet said. Still, the Avalanche like how theyre
playing now
https://www.avalancheapparelshop.com/Sergei_Boikov_Jersey-45,
going 4-2-1 since that losing streak. Now, theyd like to go into the three-day
Christmas break feeling as if their season is beginning to turn in the right
way. Especially since they play the Coyotes again, in Denver, when both teams
resume play Wednesday night. We were playing 50 great minutes and maybe we sat
down a little bit in our zone, defenseman Nikita Zadorov said of that Thursday
loss to the Kings. We didnt have too much offense up there. But that how the
game goes. I felt like we should have won this game. I thought we overplayed
them. But they made a good play in overtime to win the game. The Avalanche led
1-0 for much of what coach Jared Bednar called a good
Mikhail
Grigorenko Jersey, solid game, but Alec Martinez put a shot by a screened
Semyon Varlamov midway through the third period. Dustin Brown won it 44 seconds
into overtime by scoring during a Colorado line change. Disappointing to get
only one point out of it, Bednar said. Colorado is getting reliable scoring from
forward Nathan MacKinnon, who has 15 goals and 40 points in 34 games, and Tyler
Barrie is among the defenseman scoring leaders with four goals and 27 points.
Varlamov is 11-8-2 with a .908 save percentage this season, and 7-6-2 with a
2.72 goals-against average in his career against Arizona. The Coyotes will start
Antti Raanta, who is 4-9-2 with a 2.82 goals-against average and .916 save
percentage. Against the Avalanche, he is 1-2 with an .889 save percentage,
giving up nine goals on 81 shots. Tocchet and his players were visibly relieved
at rallying to beat Washington after poor third-period performances cost them
wins against Pittsburgh and Florida in their previous two games. Christian
Dvorak and Christian Fischer scored in the third period for the Coyotes, with
FIscher tying it at 2 with only 59 seconds left in regulation and goaltender
Scott Wedgewood off for an extra attacker. They dominated the overtime period,
outshooting Washington 6-1, before Keller won it. We showed how we can play, we
just need to do that every night, Keller said. We stuck to our game plan, and
got a lot of pucks deep. Theyve got a lot of skill players over there, but we
just stuck to our plan. Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson will return Saturday
night after serving a two-game suspension for a boarding penalty on Tampa Bay
forward Vladislav Namestnikov on Saturday.
Pinnwand