Avs collapse late in OT loss to Ducks, but playoff hope still very much alive

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Patrik Nemeth slammed his equipment to the carpeted floor. Nathan MacKinnon glared ahead, a super ticked-off look on his face, not wanting to talk to anyone. Gabe Landeskog scratched at a playoff beard that might need to be shaved six days from now, trying to explain it.

How did the Colorado Avalanche blow a game that seemed over near the mid-point of the third period? If the Avs miss qualifying for the playoffs by one point, they’ll look back on that Sunday night at the Honda Center as the one where everything went from a Mercedes to a Civic in the final, awful 13 minutes of a 4-3 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

It was all right there for the Avs; A 3-1 lead with the clock ticking to fewer than 11 minutes left. The aged, backup goalie for the Ducks in net after the starter was injured. A top Ducks defenseman also out of the game suddenly to injury. An older, slower Ducks team that looked ready to move on from this one and cede to the younger, faster visitors.

But then the Avs reverted back to their occasional nervous, jittery, unproven selves and let Anaheim take it all away. Well, at least that crucial second point anyway.

“It’s tough not to get two points out of that one,” said a somber Jonathan Bernier, who stopped 38-of-42 shots against his former team but was beaten by Ondrej Kase at 1:34 of OT after Landeskog just missed tipping a puck into an open net before making a soft poke-check that Kase stole and went the length of the ice to beat Bernier from the left side. “I thought we played a pretty good game overall. We kept them to the outside for the most part. But they’re a veteran team and they know how to win that kind of game this time of year.”

No one single entity was to blame for the loss. It was a team effort. But there can be no doubt that the Avs’ top line of Landeskog, MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen just didn’t get it done in this one. The three finished a combined minus-8 on the scoresheet, though Landeskog and MacKinnon did manage to get assists on a Tyson Jost power-play goal. Otherwise, the trio just couldn’t execute, too often making superfluous back passes or trying to stickhandle through a couple of guys on their own.

“We expect more out of ourselves, and for me to be better there,” Landeskog told BSN Denver. “We weren’t trying to sit back. We were trying to stay calm and just trying to keep playing, but they got a bounce and tied it up.”

Ryan Kesler, one of the most annoying, irritating but effective players in the NHL, got that bounce, a putback of an Andrew Cogliano shot from the corner that Bernier allowed one of his few juicy rebounds of the night.

“The third one, it’s my bad. It goes off my glove and right on the guy’s stick,” Bernier told BSN Denver.

The positive from this one? The Avs actually moved back in to the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, one point ahead of St. Louis (93-92). BUT: The Blues have a game in hand. They play the Washington Capitals at home Monday night, and get the following two games against a Chicago team that seems to have quit on the season already.

“A point’s a point, but we don’t know. We’re not going to know if it’s enough or it’s not enough. The only (time) the standings matter is next Saturday,” Jared Bednar said.

Bednar praised his team’s effort, but definitely was not happy with some of their puck decisions in the third period and OT.

“We mismanaged the puck a couple times, turned it over at the offensize zone blue line and it ended up in out net,” Bednar said.

Landeskog’s generosity on the OT sequence helped cause one goal, and his careless back pass zone – after he stole a puck right before that and had time and space to skate further into the Ducks’ zone – led to Cogliano’s breakaway goal that tied it 1-1 in the first. Alexander Kerfoot was credited with a goal at 1:16 of the first after Anaheim a fluke faceoff play led to the puck finding its way past John Gibson – who left the game after the first period with an upper-body injury after Kesler cross-checked Landeskog into him.

“We were in a position to win the game,” Bednar lamented. “We had some puck luck early and they had some late.”

Landeskog said the only thing he could say to muster positivity: Try to get two points this time, Monday down the highway in Los Angeles.

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t feel confident this time of year. We are in the race for a reason and now we just have to show up,” he said.