Tonight, the Avalanche took on the St. Louis Blues for their second game of the NHL season. The Blues came into this game on the second leg of a back-to-back and left this game with a loss by a final score of 6-1. Let’s take a look at all the action from tonight!
First Period
Cale Makar would get the scoring started about five minutes into the game, off a couple of absolutely gorgeous passes from Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas. On this play, MacKinnon was the one to break the puck into the offensive zone, and Necas flew
down right in front of the net and was not picked up by any Blues player, and he was ultimately able to find Makar on the post, and he made no mistake.
Martin Necas would pick up his first goal of the night next, as Artturi Lehkonen forced a turnover in along the boards in the offensive zone, and MacKinnon was able to pick up the puck and find Necas with a cross-ice pass, and Necas put a bar-down shot past Jordan Binnington, making it 2-0 in favor of the Avs.
Second Period
Josh Manson would make it 3-0 next by just letting a shot fly from the blue line as TJ Hughes provided a great screen in front of the net, and Binnington was unable to pick up the shot through traffic.
Lehkonen would make it 4-0 off a definite misplay from Binnington. Initially, it looked as if the St. Louis goaltender was trying to pass the puck up the middle of the ice to get it out of the zone, but Lehkonen cut the puck down and put it into what was essentially an empty net, as Binnington was not able to recover in time.
Nic Roy would score his second goal of the season next, as Parker Kelly was able to find him with a phenomenal pass, and Roy caught Binnington with a quick release.
Necas would get a bit of a freebie goal before the second period would end; Binnington went behind the net to try and play the puck again, misplayed it, and Necas found the puck in front of the net to make it 6-0.
Third Period
Dalibor Dvorsky would break the shutout and make it 6-1 about three minutes into the third period, off of a weird play in front of the net in which it looked like Manson thought he had the puck, but he didn’t, and Dvorsky was able to put it past Mackenzie Blackwood.
Takeaways
There’s not a ton to take away from this game. Colorado continued its offensive onslaught tonight, after scoring eight goals against the Kings a couple of nights ago. Mackenzie Blackwood certainly had a better outing tonight, stopping 25 of 26 shots for a 0.962 SV% on the night. Your star players showed up and showed out tonight and capitalized on the mistakes that Jordan Binnington and the Blues made. Colorado did not score a powerplay goal tonight, which is a bit of a negative, but the penalty kill didn’t give up a goal either, so you broke even on special teams when all was said and done. Of course, it is only game two of the season; there’s still a lot of regular-season hockey to be played, but this has certainly been a great start for the Avalanche so far.
Upcoming
The Avalanche head out for the first game of a back-to-back against the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday, October 7. Puck drop will be at 7:30 p.m. MT.
