After successful eastern road trip, the Colorado Avalanche looked to keep the momentum going against the Boston Bruins in a match back home at Ball Arena. The power play continued to sputter but that didn’t
matter as Nathan MacKinnon scored two goals en route to a pretty routine 4-1 win.
The Game
Perhaps as punishment for putting their fans through yet another Nordiques jersey fakeout, the Colorado Avalanche gave up the game’s first goal. John Beecher scored his first of the year uncovered on the backdoor just over three minutes into the game on Boston’s first shot on goal. It didn’t take long for the Avalanche to answer back on their first shot on goal as well with Nathan MacKinnon beat Jeremy Swayman one-on-one to even the score halfway through the first period.
As if that wasn’t enough, Colorado scored on their second shot on goal when Josh Manson converted on a long shot from the blue line off of a Gabe Landeskog face-off win to take the lead. Both teams traded ineffective power plays to close out the first frame 2-1 in favor of Colorado.
In the second period the Avalanche received three power plays, so naturally the score remained the same 2-1 after 40 minutes of play. But the home team put up a 16-2 shot advantage for the period at least even if none found the back of the net.
If Boston had any chance to get back in this game that was erased five minutes into the third period when Nathan MacKinnon struck again on the back door after receiving a pass from Artturi Lehkonen from behind the net. Colorado received one more power play they couldn’t cash in on, going 0/5 for the night. But that didn’t matter as they maintained their comfortable lead. A Martin Nečas empty net goal sealed the deal and made the 4-1 win official.
Takeaways
Zakhar Bardakov suited up for his first NHL game with the injury to Joel Kiviranta but he only saw eight minutes of time on ice. Gavin Brindley was on his line and received his usual 10 minutes. They were scored on when Boston crafted their only goal of the evening. Both of their usage bears monitoring going forward.
Despite only making 13 saves, Scott Wedgewood was once again superb and has been the backbone of the club so far this season. With him playing so well it’s going to be interesting to see how and when Mackenzie Blackwood is worked back into the crease.
Upcoming
A quick road trip to get in a rematch with the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday, October 21st. Puck drop is at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
