Avs played hard but drop the ball to Seattle Kraken in the final minute

The Colorado Avalanche continued their homestand with a matchup against the Seattle Kraken tonight.

After a key win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, they hoped to extend their home win streak to five games but their dreams were dashed by a 4-3 loss to the Kraken – a loss which came late third period.

The lineup experienced some changes: Riley Tufte was recalled by the Avs and played on the second line with Val Nichushkin and Ryan Johansen. Jonathan Drouin was the healthy-scratch.

Ivan Prosvetov earned his second start in net of the year. He finished the night with 19 saves on 22 shots.

Their first period was solid. The Avs and Seattle limited one another well in either end. Neither team was giving up much and Colorado had a slight edge in the possession and shots battle.

A costly mistake came in the final minutes of an otherwise good period.

During a line change, the Kraken sprung into action. Mikko Rantanen attempted to sweep the puck away from Tye Kartye and lost his stick. Kartye was able to drop the puck back for Jaden Schwartz, and Schwartz fired it into the far-side corner.

There were no penalties in the first, so it was a refreshing five-on-five exchange.

Early into the second, a blocked shot led to a rush chance for Seattle. In the Avs’ end, Jamie Oleksiak helped to recover the puck after Oliver Bjorkstrand lost it in a collision. Bjorkstrand received the puck back from Oleksiak in the slot and beat Prosvetov.

Less than twenty seconds later, Colorado responded.

The Avs worked hard to settle the puck behind their goal line. Cale Makar made the breakout pass to tag up Artturi Lehkonen at the blueline, and Lehkonen fed Nathan MacKinnon in the neutral zone.

With Bowen Byram on his flank, MacKinnon made the slot pass on a two-on-one and Byram showed perfect patience, waiting for the right moment to wrist the puck bar down.

A little disruption came about midway through the period and special teams was tested.

Josh Manson took a cross-checking penalty and the kill was successful. Soon after, the Avs took a too-many-men penalty and went back on the kill.

Vince Dunn reset from the top of the zone and passed to Matty Beniers at the top of the left circle. A little casual defending his lane, Devon Toews didn’t get anything on Beniers’ shot which beat Prosvetov clean.

The powerplay goal-against was a tough pill to swallow, but the worst of this game came moments later.

Artturi Lehkonen was in a race to the puck with Jamie Oleksiak, and even though Oleksiak gave him a little shove, Lehkonen’s speed coupled with a loss of balance caused him to trip head-first into the boards.

He was clearly pained and stayed down for a bit before exiting the game.

He was taken to a local hospital as a precaution for further evaluation and was alert, responsive, and had full movement.

The loss of Lehkonen also rattled the team.

In an effort to rally the group, a late push from the top guys helped to keep them in it.

Makar got the puck back at the point and noted MacKinnon in the slot. Makar sent it to MacKinnon who, with time and space, could turn and fire it in.

It brought the Avs within one just before the final period. Their second period was analytically good, but it was obviously chaotic with so much special teams action.

On two powerplays of their own, the Avs only registered one shot on net and allowed three shorthanded chances.

Midway through the third period, the Avs’ top guys had another good shift. Rantanen worked hard behind the goal line to keep possession and MacKinnon got the puck to Toews at the point. Toews’ shot from the blueline was tipped by Nichushkin in the slot to tie the game.

With 6:44 to go, Vince Dunn checked Andrew Cogliano hard from behind. Cogliano felt the hit came a bit early and Jared Bednar didn’t like it either, “It was a check from behind. It’s simple. You can’t hit him from behind.”

Byram immediately dropped the gloves to challenge Dunn and began throwing punches. The pair fell to the ice in the skirmish. Even though Dunn did drop his gloves, Byram was assessed a double-minor for roughing/instigating. Dunn received two for roughing, but Byram’s extra put the Avs down the man-advantage.

Bednar also disagreed with the instigator call.

“It’s just a competitive game where: we’re trying to win, they’re trying to win,” Cogliano said. “A couple of hits are made. Dirty or not, it just comes down to competing throughout the game. [Byram] did a great job stepping up after a big hit. Not surprisingly those are the little things that you build on through the year and early in the season. When guys do that, you start building as a team and those pay dividends down the line in the playoffs.”

The Avs killed the penalty and finished the game on a knife’s edge. Both teams locked it down defensively and allowed the fewest shots of any period.

This made scoring opportunities hard to come by, but things broke Seattle’s way in the final minute.

Bjorkstrand baited Byram and Colton behind the net and made a slick pass from behind to Eeli Tolvanen at the crease. Prosvetov blocked Tolvanen’s shot, but Bjorkstrand was there to clean up the rebound.

Byram and Colton became distracted by Tolvanen. Colton stumbled to get back to stop Tolvanen not realizing Bjorkstrand was now the threat all alone on the left side.

Colton broke his stick off the side of the post in frustration.

There were only 31 seconds left for the Avs to try and fix this. Bednar pulled Prosvetov for the extra skater and put Colton back on the ice.

It was an interesting move. Instead of punishing Colton who was undoubtedly stewing in shame and frustration, Bednar gave him the tools to channel that into something good.

They made a valiant push: Rantanen, Colton, and Makar had their last-ditch efforts blocked and the time simply ran out.

“We played hard. We weren’t perfect, never going to be, but I thought we did a nice job,” Bednar said post-game.

“I felt like we deserved a better outcome, to be honest with you,” Makar added. “We battled a lot of elements tonight – guys going down – and I felt like our work ethic was top-notch. Compete-wise, we played to the best of our ability. Some games it’s not going to go your way and tonight was one of those. Overall, I don’t think today is something that we can hang our head on.”

Bednar echoed Makar’s sentiments about the compete-level.

He was quick to clarify that he didn’t believe it was a product of misfortune.

“My philosophy on it is: when you’re getting the bounces it’s because you’re earning them. Our guys worked extremely hard and it didn’t come easy for us,” he said.

“This is the National Hockey League. You have to expect to have to play exceptional, execution has to be exceptional, and your effort has to be exceptional in order to win. That’s the way it should be. It’s what makes winning so fun.”

The Avs were good, but they weren’t dominant. Seattle preyed upon the few weaknesses of Colorado’s game and sunk their teeth in when they could.

St. Louis is coming to town Saturday just in time for the Avs to redirect their ire toward a familiar division foe.

There’s not too much to get hung up on until then except for concern over Lehkonen’s health.