Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said he was "very happy" with his team's 4-1-2 record in the seven-game homestand that ended Friday with a 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Islanders.
But he had to be disappointed having to settle for one point after the Avalanche managed to hold Islanders high-scoring forwards John Tavares, Thomas Vanek and Kyle Okposo off the scoresheet.
So now the Avalanche faces off against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center to begin a two-game road trip that includes Chicago on Tuesday. Ten of the remaining 14 games before the Olympic break will be played on the road.
The Avalanche continues to hold down third place in the Central Division, six points ahead of the fourth-place Wild, which has gotten back on track with four consecutive wins to cool off the hot seat coach Mike Yeo has been occupying. The Avalanche also picked up a point on fifth-place Dallas, which has fallen to 12 points behind.
Like the Avalanche, the Wild is missing several key contributors: goalie Josh Harding (ill), center Mikko Koivu (ankle), left wing Zach Parise (foot) and defenseman Jared Spurgeon won't play Saturday.
The Avalanche won't know until Saturday if forward Ryan O'Reilly, who has missed two games with a shoulder injury, defenseman Tyson Barrie or forward David Van Der Gulik will be available against the Wild. Barrie and Van Der Gulik sustained undisclosed injuries Friday. Barrie was able to return and played 18:09, but Roy wasn't certain of his status for Saturday, and defenseman Nate Guenin (ankle) didn't make the trip.
O'Reilly took some contact Friday morning and is close to returning, but the Avalanche called up defenseman Karl Stollery from Lake Erie in the American Hockey League in case Barrie can't. Stollery had five goals, six assists and a plus-5 rating in 28 games for the Monsters. Stefan Elliott? He has six goals and eight assists in 28 games but is a minus-9. His stock seems to have plummeted.
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Matt Duchene has gone 10 games without a goal. He had four of the Avalanche's 31 shots against Islanders goalie Kevin Poulin, giving him 30 shots on goal in the slump. Colorado needs him to start scoring again, especially with so many forwards out with injuries.
Roy on the homestand: "I thought our guys played well on this homestand. It was a dangerous one. You wanted to pick up as many points as possible and I think 10 out of 14 is pretty good."
The Avalanche managed to blow another lead, which has become a trend. Rookie Nathan MacKinnon used blazing speed to score a spectacular goal to give his team a 1-0 lead late in the second period, but the Islanders tied it early in the third on a goal by Brock Nelson and won it 1:46 into overtime when Michael Grabner scored from the slot. "It was a hard-fought game," Roy said. "Unfortunately we were on the wrong side of the game, but I thought we did a lot of good things out there. We battled and defensively we played well. We didn't give them too many chances. Unfortunately we couldn't get the goal that would have given us a 2-0 lead."
Goalie Semyon Varlamov had 22 saves and has gone 7-0-5 in his past 13 games (12 starts). He's allowed two goals or fewer in eight of them and will start against the Wild.
MacKinnon has five goals in the past four games, nine in 13 games and has tied injured San Jose forward Tomas Hertl for the goal-scoring lead among NHL rookies with 15. He leads all rookies in scoring with 29 points.
"I'm a little more patient, I guess, a little more comfortable," MacKinnon said. “I think we deserved two (points). We played a pretty solid game overall I thought."