To finish out their eastern Canadian swing, the Colorado Avalanche visited the Montreal Canadiens in what is always a spirited affair. News broke earlier in the day that they’d have to tackle this game shorthanded with both Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon out with injury. It was a classic win by committee through adversity as the Avalanche found themselves with a 4-1 victory.
The Game
Life sans superstars started off on a positive note as Fedor Svechkov got the scoring
started and gave the Avalanche an early lead on a puck that was chipped over Montreal netminder Jakub Dobes. Brock Nelson doubled the score on a slick feed from Artturi Lehkonen. Montreal found the 10-5 shot advantage but Colorado had the 2-0 lead on the scoreboard.
In the second period the two teams traded a pair of power plays each but neither team could convert. Montreal did get on the board with a goal from Nick Suzuki after he took advantage of some very lax Avalanche defense. The score at the second intermission was 2-1 Colorado.
With the benefit of another power play to open the third period, Colorado added to their lead with Artturi Lehkonen’s 15th goal of the season doing what he does best cleaning up the garbage at the net front. At one point it seemed Montreal would make it a game again when Alex Newhook tipped a puck past Mackenzie Blackwood but after a lengthy review it was determined he touched the puck with a high stick and the goal was wiped out. Montreal pulled the goalie with several minutes left and in the dying seconds Nic Roy found the back of the net to give Colorado a 4-1-victory.
Takeaways
If Colorado is going to survive the era with MacKinnon and Makar on the shelf they are really going to need to accept help from the non-veteran players in their lineup. It was disappointing to see Fedor Svechkov score on the opening minutes of the game and yet finished with the team-low 10 minutes of ice time with a 82% share of the expected goals while he was on the ice. He will be wasted on the fourth line in a healthy lineup and with one aching for useful depth guys like Svechkov will be key to keeping this team afloat.
Rookie defenseman Alex Gagne made his NHL debut and played nearly 12 minutes. He did well enough in a third pair role with Brent Burns. It remains to be seen if Gagne gets the opportunity throughout Makar’s full absence or if there will be trading out players especially as Colorado has a very light schedule over the next couple of weeks.
Upcoming
A couple days rest and then a big Central division matchup at the Utah Mammoth to begin yet another back-to-back on Wednesday, November 18th at 8 p.m. MT.
