As well as the Avalanche played Monday in their 4-1 win against the St. Louis Blues, they feel they can and must be even better Wednesday in Game 2 of the best-of-7 Stanley Cup First Round series at Ball Arena.
The Avalanche outshot the Blues 50-23, went 1-for-3 on power plays – Cale Makar scored in the first period -- and killed both of St. Louis’ man advantages.
They also got a “Gordie Howe Hat Trick… from Gabriel Landeskog, who had a goal, two assists and fought Brayden Schenn halfway through the first period after the Blues forward took a run at Mikko Rantanen.
Here’s my NHL.com GAME STORY.
Here’s a NHL.com JORDAN BINNINGTON story on his 46-save night.
The Landeskog-Nathan MacKinnon-Rantanen line accounted for three goals and four assists in the third period when the Avalanche broke a 1-1 tie. The unit finished with eight points, 16 shots on goal and plus 8.
Nathan MacKinnon recorded 2-1—3 as the @Avalanche earned a 1-0 series lead. This marked @Mackinnon9’s 17th multi-point game in the #StanleyCup Playoffs – the fourth-most in franchise history.#NHLStats: https://t.co/APNhUxdS4J pic.twitter.com/ZMAXKGuubL
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 18, 2021
“Yeah, I definitely think we can play better,… coach Jared Bednar said Tuesday after an optional practice. “Little bit of a slow start first five minutes or so, gave up a couple scoring chances. The last half of the second period I didn’t like our game. We did not manage the puck properly, took too many turnovers in our zone, neutral zone, high in the offensive zone, weren’t disciplined with the puck that led for momentum shift for St. Louis. They ended up tying it on an odd-man rush on a poor puck play from us.
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Home games in CAPS, all times MT
Mon., Avalanche W 4-1 Wed., ST. LOUIS, 8:30 p.m. Fri., at St. Louis, 7:30 p.m. Sun., at St. Louis, 3 p.m. *Tue., May 25, ST. LOUIS, TBD *Thur., May 27, at St. Louis, TBD *Sat., May 29, ST. LOUIS *If necessary
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“Give them credit, they put some pressure on us in some areas, but there are some adjustments, some corrections that we have to make – hustling back for pucks, getting there quicker, we kind of wandered back for some and invited pressure and then didn’t get out of it.
“I think you have to have a little more urgency going back for pucks and making sure that our puck placement is cleaner. I thought we had a couple ‘D’ that struggled with the puck. I think if we improve some of that the game’s not as close as what it was last night.…
Defenseman Ryan Graves had an inconsistent night in 16:30 of ice time. He took the team’s only two minor penalties, blocked five shots and was plus 2, but he made what would have been a costly turnover with 6 1-2 minutes left in the second period with the Avalanche in front 1-0.
Graves was able to make amends for that, getting to the net in time to make a sensational lunging stick save on Mike Hoffman’s wraparound attempt with goalie Philipp Grubauer out of position.
Jordan Kyrou tied the game 1-1 three minutes later on the odd-man rush Bednar referred to and the game stayed that way when Blues goalie Jordan Binnington (46 saves) stopped Tyson Jost on a breakaway with 1:08 left in the period.
Meanwhile, the Blues’ top line (minus leading scorer David Perron due to COVID-19 protocol) of captain Ryan O’Reilly, Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko was held off the scoresheet, had seven shots and was minus 7.
“It’s a matchup that we said we wanted, that’s their top guys against our top guys and that’s their responsibility,… Bednar said. “So I used MacKinnon against those guys for most of the night.…
MacKinnon, who had two goals and an assist, moved past Claude Lemieux and Adam Deadmarsh into sole possession of eighth place in franchise history with 57 playoff points (22 goals, 35 assists). He’s tied with Deadmarsh for ninth on the goals list.
Landeskog’s “Gordie Howe Hat Trick… was the first for an Avalanche player in postseason play since Mike Ricci had a goal, assist and fight with Ethan Moreau in a 6-0 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on April 16, 1997 at McNichols Sports Arena.
“Emotional leader for our team last night,… Bednar said of Landeskog. “Gets involved right away, drags everyone into the fight, made a lot of plays, a lot of nice plays to create scoring chances for himself and his teammates, was physical, had some good pushback in his game and then goes to the net and gets us a huge goal in the third period.…
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Defenseman Bowen Byram, who’s been out since March 25 with an upper-body injury, skated and is cleared to play, Bednar said. “I guess he’s an option whenever we want to use him.…
Forward Alex Newhook played 7:07, had one shot and one hit in his playoff debut.
Defenseman Conor Timmins logged 8:44 and was minus 1. He said Tuesday he’s fine after taking a shot off his ankle late in the third period of last Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings.
“My foot swelled up pretty bad, couldn’t put much pressure on it,… he said. “Wanted to be safe about it and get it checked out. Feels great now, so no problems.…
The Avalanche nominated Pierre-Edouard Bellemare for the Kings Clancy Memorial Award, which is presented "to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community."
"I'm pretty honored obviously,… Bellemare said. “What it means and where I come from and the work that has to be done to be able to be here. Sometimes you're not trying to lead, you're just trying to do whatever you think is right and, in my case, I come every day and I'm enjoying this. Compared to the different places I have been playing hockey, this is awesome and every day I try to make the guys understand that it is fun, and I think this is one of the reasons I am in that position.
"It's nice, it's also kind of a good tap on the back. Even if sometimes I do stuff (and) there is nobody in the room, sometimes when you work it pays off and you get rewarded with those kinds of nominations. There's a lot of names on that list, which is really impressive and everything but just to be nominated, I'm really honored."