It wasn’t the outcome the Avalanche wanted, but having the No. 2 Western Conference seed isn’t all that bad.
They’ll play the defense-minded Arizona Coyotes in the best-of-7 first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs starting Tuesday or Wednesday because of a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, the West’s hub city.
Here’s my
NHL.com GAME STORY.
The Avalanche split two regular-season games with the Coyotes, winning 3-2 in overtime at the Pepsi Center on Oct. 12 and losing 3-0 on Nov. 2 in Arizona.
Pavel Francouz was in goal for both games.
“Arizona has an identity, they play to it every night,” coach
Jared Bednar said. “They’re very consistent in what they do. They’re going to make it difficult on our guys, so we’re going to have to be ready to deal with their checking. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before. They’re a real good hockey team, they’ve proven it already here in the bubble.”
The Coyotes, the No. 7 seed, are making their first playoff appearance since 2012.
Brad Richardson, who played parts of three seasons with the Avalanche, converted a rebound in overtime and
Darcy Kuemper made 49 saves in a 4-3 win against sixth-seeded Nashville to secure the best-of-5 qualifying series in four games.
Arizona was 11th in the conference when the NHL put the season on hold March 12 because of the COVID-19 pandemic but got a reprieve when postseason bracket was expanded to 12 teams.
"It's a huge challenge,"
Nathan MacKinnon said. "They're a very good team, well structured. They've got some good offense. It's going to be a tough series and we'll do our homework and we'll be well prepared and ready to go for Game 1. Losing (stinks), but we're the No. 2 seed, we're not in a bad spot and we're feeling good heading into the first round."
The Avalanche went 2-0-1 in the round-robin games, losing to the Golden Knights (3-0-0) when
Alex Tuch scored with 15.9 seconds left in the extra period, beating
Philipp Grubauer to the far side from the left circle on a 2-on-1 rush.
Playing 3-on-3 hockey hasn’t been a strong suit for the Avalanche, but it’ll be 5-on-5 for overtime in playoffs if needed.
Grubauer was 1-0-1 with a 2.46 goals-against average and .914 save percentage in the round robin games. Francouz made 27 saves in a 4-0 win against the Dallas Stars.
The Avalanche never led against Vegas, coming back from 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 deficits. They tied the game 3-3 with 1:02 left in the third period with Grubauer off for a sixth skater when
J.T. Compher jammed in a loose puck after
Nazem Kadri rang a shot off the crossbar.
MacKinnon and
Joonas Donskoi also scored for the Avalanche, who went 1-for-6 on power plays and squandered a 5-on-3 advantage in the first period that lasted 1:28. Their best chance came from
Mikko Rantanen, whose laser shot was gloved by
Robin Lehner.
The Avalanche outshot the Golden Knights 35-26; they were outshot 3-1 in overtime.
"I didn't think it was our best game," Bednar said. "It was a long feeling out process. I think we were okay, we had the right intentions, but it wasn't our best game that we've played so far. I liked the stick-to-it-iveness to stay with it and to keep chipping away and finding a way at the end. We just weren't as sharp as a group as we've been."
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