The Avalanche on Thursday recalled defenseman Andrei Mironov from San Antonio of the AHL, giving them seven blue liners again in the absence of Tyson Barrie, who will miss 4-6 weeks to recover from surgery on his fractured right hand.

Mironov, 23, had a goal and five assists in 14 games with the Rampage. He earlier had a goal and two assists in nine games with the Avalanche.

But coach Jared Bednar said the same six defensemen who played Wednesday in the Avalanche's 3-1 loss to Arizona will be in the lineup Friday against Toronto in the second game of the six-game homestand, along with goalie Semyon Varlamov.

So that will include Nikita Zadorov, who had four hits, two blocked shots and a holding penalty in 19:06 of ice time. He also cranked a shot off the crossbar in the third period with the Avalanche trailing by a goal.

"It wasn't a great game for us," he said after practice Thursday. "We weren't there effortly and I don't think we took that team seriously."

The Coyotes entered the game with the worst record in the NHL (eight wins, 21 points in 38 games), but as much as the Avalanche have improved this year, they're still out of the playoffs as midseason approaches and they can hardly be excused for taking anyone lightly after their horrid 22-win, 48-point performance last season.

The Avalanche also lost to Buffalo at home earlier this month, and the Sabres now have nine wins and 26 points in 37 games.

"It's not how you're supposed to prepare for a game in this league," Zadorov said. "Anyone can surprise you. We're going to have a better start (Friday)."

Poor starts have been a problem lately, especially at home. They've allowed the first goal in seven of the past nine games at home, and lost six of them.

"We've struggled putting 60 full minutes together here lately," Bednar said. "After looking at last night's tape we got real competitive and real hungry in the third period, creating a lot of good chances and just missed out on a little bit of puck luck. Hit the post a couple times.

"It just shows what we can do when we come out with the right mindset and our details are tight and there's a certain level of desire to get the job done.

"The competitiveness and commitment to do the right things leads to good execution. We were a little lax with it early in the game. We got better as the game went on, but you can't spot teams goals, can't give them easy goals, and we gave them a couple off turnovers."

The Coyotes opened the scoring with a weird Tobias Rieder goal 54 seconds into the game, but the Avalanche should have gotten some life from Mikko Rantanen's goal three minutes later.

Killing off a 5-on-3 Arizona power play that began late in the first period and carried into the second when Matt Nieto and Erik Johnson took consecutive delay-of-game penalties also should have provided some much-needed momentum.

But it was the Coyotes who made it 2-1 on an Alex Goligoski goal halfway through the second period after a turnover by rookie Tyson Jost, who continues to struggle and played just 7:47.

Nieto shot a puck off the right post in the third period, Nathan MacKinnon was denied on a breakaway, and Zadorov hit one off the crossbar. Then a gaffe by defenseman Mark Barberio led to Lawson Crouse's goal with 4:25 remaining, and that was that.

"I guess the hockey god wasn't there," Zadorov said. "She comes to the ones who work hard. Give credit to Arizona, they worked hard and they wanted to win and they deserved it."



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