Lehkonen and Compher drive Avalanche to victory over Flyers

All across the NHL, it’s been a wild year for streaks. The St. Louis Blues have both won and lost eight straight games already and the Boston Bruins won their first 14 home games and still haven’t lost in regulation. It’s just been a streaky year.

The Colorado Avalanche have largely missed that boat, but coming off a four-game losing streak amidst unparalleled roster turnover thanks to a myriad of injuries, it was time for the Avs to get back to their winning ways.

Enough reinforcements entered the picture that the Avs are again icing what can reasonably be considered a real top line in the NHL and their depth is passable enough for the moment. This raises expectations, especially with the Philadelphia Flyers in town.

Not many batted many eyes when the overmatched Avalanche got rolled by the Boston Bruins, both in Boston and in Denver a week later, but the game that really stung in that losing streak was the loss in Philadelphia.

That was the game they lost Nathan MacKinnon to injury, but the Flyers are just not a team trying to win hockey games. They are one of the only clubs in the NHL who can understand the injury issues the Avs have been going through as the IR has been home to plenty of high-profile Flyers this year.

Still, beat up or not, losing to the Flyers to open a season-high five-game homestand just was not something anybody was prepared to swallow. Things happen in the NHL, of course, but this was an important game to get an important stretch of the season started right.

Even without MacKinnon, Colorado just cannot be losing to the Flyers, especially when they are sitting Carter Hart.

In the end, the Avs got the job done in a 3-2 win, a nice victory in regulation that gets the Avs two points and five of their last six. That is much-needed stabilization after it felt like the bottom was falling out of their season the last time these two teams got together.

This one started off the opposite of the game in Philadelphia, as the Avs came out flying and looked poised to take the lead against the team that has given up the most first goals of the game this season (22 by Philly, which is, wow).

Instead, it was the Flyers who got a strange bounce off Pavel Francouz’s blocker and Cam York followed up on his own shot to put it home. While it was initially waved off for goaltender interference, the officials conferred and decided the contact occurred outside the crease, therefore it was not interference and a good goal. Colorado chose not to challenge and the Flyers had a 1-0 lead.

That lead would last into the second period despite Colorado heavily tilting the ice in their favor. That tilt finally paid off when J.T. Compher made a nice saucer pass to a cutting Devon Toews and Toews slipped it five hole on Felix Sandstrom to tie the game.

Colorado continued pressing but ultimately wound up down a man following Mikko Rantanen being called for tripping former barely-Av Lukas Sedlak. On that power play chance, Erik Johnson held the blueline on an attempted entry from York, pushed the puck the other direction and Artturi Lehkonen chased it down and also beat Sandstrom five hole for a short-handed goal and a 2-1 lead.

It was a pretty remarkable bit of karma for Lehkonen, who saw a very similar goal scored against him two days ago in St. Louis when his own failed entry attempt went the other way for a SHG. The universe does have a sense of humor.

With that lead, the Avs entered the third period feeling in control but really needing one more goal to salt the game away. Enter Lehkonen, whose ability to make a play out of the corner is quickly becoming his signature in an Avalanche sweater.

Lehkonen got to a loose puck and found Compher, who was alone in front, and Compher put it upstairs on Sandstrom to give the Avs a 3-1 lead.

Things remained pretty comfortable for Colorado until Flyers head coach John Tortorella made the bold decision to pull his goaltender with just under four minutes remaining in the game. The gamble paid off as the Flyers took complete control of the game from that moment forward.

Philadelphia’s pressure got them one goal when set play had Travis Konecny come out high in the zone and fire a one-timer. It was a clean look and was tipped by notorious pigeon James van Riemsdyk, who has made a very productive career out of tipping home pucks from a foot outside the crease. That tip made it 3-2 and changed the entire feel in the arena.

The Avs wouldn’t ever get the empty-net goal but also would not succumb to the pressure Philadelphia was putting on them. Francouz stood tall and shut it down from there, securing Colorado’s win.

Two points in the standings put the Avs back into a tie with the Minnesota Wild for third in the Central Division but also gave them some space as they are now five points ahead of Nashville and St. Louis but are also just five points behind second-place Winnipeg as well.

The Buffalo Sabres roll into town on Thursday as the Avs look to sweep the season series but will have to find a way to handle the rampaging beast that is Tage Thompson.

TAKEAWAYS

• Gotta give Compher credit. I might do a deeper dive on him as his contract year is going as expected (career-high scoring pace!), but he’s stepped into the spotlight as best as you can ask from him. He’s playing over 20 minutes per game, taking every big faceoff, playing in all situations. It’s a jack-of-all-trades job for him right now and while he’s not crushing the role, he’s staying afloat as well as he ever has.
• I thought it was kind of an odd move to play Francouz again when this could have been a nice confidence-building kind of game for Georgiev, but it’s really not a complaint at all. Francouz responded as you’d expect. He’s a good goaltender.
• Jean-Luc Foudy is fun, but lots of mistakes every night. He is a lot of fun, though, and probably deserved a point or two tonight with some of his playmaking.
• Feels like there’s no real role for Alex Newhook right now. He’s only very technically centering the fourth line, but Dryden Hunt and Jacob MacDonald didn’t even combine for ten minutes played tonight but Newhook got a little over 12 minutes. This is a really weird time for him right now. Evan Rodrigues and Darren Helm returning to the lineup will force some real decisions but it should at least bring an end to the nightly chaos Newhook is going through.