Avalanche get eaten alive by Predators in blowout

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME RUNDOWN

After a relatively positive weekend against lightweights, the Colorado Avalanche turned their attention towards the Central Division, beginning with the visiting Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

Things started off rocky for Colorado as Craig Smith deflected a Mike Ribeiro pass behind Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov just 43 seconds into the game to give the visitors a 1-0 lead and put Colorado back on their heels.

The Avalanche responded well to the early adversity with a classic hockey play as Matt Duchene took a Gabriel Landeskog pass, carried it into the offensive zone and fired a low shot Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne kicked right to Jarome Iginla, who easily deposited the puck into the empty net to tie the game at one apiece.

Despite a period where Colorado controlled the majority of shots, the Predators took advantage of Colorado’s faceoff woes with a clean win back to defenseman Matt Irwin, who beat Varlamov late in the period to make it 2-1, Nashville, heading into the second period.

Everything that was good about Colorado’s first period fell away in the second as Nashville completely, utterly, thoroughly dominated in every aspect and was capped off by Ryan Johansen getting his first goal of the season with a power play goal to make it 3-1 going into the third period. The Predators outshot Colorado 19-7 in the period.

Colorado poured on some pressure early in the third period but Rinne and pals staved it off and a Roman Josi goal pushed the score to 4-1 and removed any doubt about the outcome.

Craig Smith took advantage of Colorado’s porous third line and added his second goal of the night in the final half of the third period to bring the game to 5-1.

THREE STARS
1. Craig Smith
2. Ryan Johansen
3. Pekka Rinne

PLAY OF THE GAME/TURNING POINT

The Matt Irwin goal towards the end of the first period proved to be the game-winner but, maybe more importantly, showed that even though the Avalanche were playing well, it didn’t matter because this was Nashville’s night.

BY THE NUMBERS

WHAT’S NEXT

Colorado hits the road again as they head to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks on Thursday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. MST.