It’s win tonight or go home for the Avalanche, who are down 3-1 in the best-of-7 Stanley Cup playoff series with the Dallas Stars.
Coach Jared Bednar wouldn’t disclose his lineup for Game 5, including who will start in goal.
Teams trailing 3-1 are 29-284 (9.3 percent) winning a best-of-7 playoff series, including an 0-6 record in the first round this year.
As poorly as he played Sunday in the Avalanche’s 5-4 loss, I’m guessing Pavel Francouz will start ahead of Michael Hutchinson, who stopped 3-of-3 shots in relief in his playoff debut.
Also guessing Francouz would have a short leash. He has a 3.23 goals-against average and .892 save percentage in six games.
Philipp Grubauer, Erik Johnson, Joonas Donskoi and Matt Calvert remain “unfit to play,… Bednar said.
As for the team’s mood:
“It’s grumpy,… Bednar said. “I feel like our team has a little snarl on, which I think is a good thing. I don’t think anyone’s sitting in here feeling sorry for themselves. We’ve had a discussion on how we feel the series has gone, where we’re at as a team, and we picked over just a little bit of video and we’re just getting our minds right to get ready to start on time and get after it.
"I think our guys are, like I said, a little bit grumpy, a little bit angry this morning, and I expect them to play that way tonight.… ********************
WESTERN CONFERENCE SECOND ROUND Best-of-7, Rogers Place, Edmonton
All times Mountain Time Dallas leads 3-1
Game 1 -- Dallas 5, Avalanche 3 Game 2 -- Dallas 5, Avalanche 2 Game 3 – Avalanche 6, Dallas 4 Game 4 – Dallas 5, Avalanche 4 Tonight, 7:45 p.m. NBCSN, SN, TVAS *Wednesday, TBD *Friday, TBD
*If necessary
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The Stars scored three goals on nine shots Sunday, two on the power play, before the Avalanche even had a shot on goal. They scored two more, including another on a power play, in a span of 32 seconds in the third period to take a 5-2 lead.
The Avalanche took too many penalties and did a poor job killing them off; the Stars were 3-of-6 on power plays.
As poorly as Francouz played -- he allowed five goals on 26 shots and was given the hook 8:02 into the third period -- he didn’t get much help.
"We haven't defended our best in this series,… Bednar said. “I've seen our team defend better. So, I would rely on that rather than just going into some shell that we're not used to playing in. We defend better when we're on our toes and getting after a team, making it hard on them with our quickness and our puck pressure all over the ice.
“We haven't been at our best in this series and we're going to have to be at our best to win (tonight) and so on down the line. I would put pressure on our team to be better than what we've been in some of the areas we've been stressing all year, rather than looking at a totally different approach." Follow @RickS7