Islanders smoke Avalanche in third period, win 5-1

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME RUNDOWN

The Colorado Avalanche hit the ice today for the second time in 24 hours as they completed the second half of a New York City back-to-back, taking on the New York Islanders in an early evening tilt. The Avalanche came into the game with a respectable 3-3 record in the second game of back-to-backs this year and early on they looked primed to push that record to 4-3.

Colorado jumped onto the Isles early with a number of good scoring chances and the unlikeliest of goalscorers opened it up when Joe Colborne took a pass from Andreas Martinsen and broke in alone on goaltender J.F. Berube, deking him and tapping the puck into the vacated net for the 1-0 lead.

The Islanders responded with a fury, relentlessly pressuring Colorado until they finally broke through when Nick Leddy placed the puck in the top corner behind a screened Calvin Pickard, tying the game at 1-1 and ultimately slowing down the Islanders attack. The first period eventually closed with the game still tied.

The stalemate remained through most of the second period until a pair of Avalanche penalties gave New York a two-man advantage  and a beauty of a passing play ended in Ryan Strome one-timing a puck past Pickard for the 2-1 lead.

The mistakes didn’t end there as Nikita Zadorov declined to play any semblance of defense in front of Pickard early in the third period and John Tavares made him pay with a great pass to Anders Lee, who enjoyed Zadorov’s apathy and banked home the puck for the 3-1 lead early on. It was just the beginning of another disastrous third period for Colorado.

Lee struck again just over halfway into the period on the power play when Fedor Tyutin left him alone in front of the net in order to try to block Johnny Boychuk’s slap shot but the shot never came and Boychuk instead passed it to Lee, who tipped it perfectly into the top corner of the net for the 4-1 lead.

Jason Chimera got in on the fun a couple minutes later when a broken play in front of Pickard led to the Avalanche goaltender initially stopping the shot but eventually he accidentally kicked it into his own net and just like that a 2-1 game was 5-1 and Colorado’s doors were blown off. Again.

THREE STARS

1. Nick Leddy
2. John Tavares
3. Johnny Boychuk

BY THE NUMBERS

WHAT’S NEXT

Colorado stays on the road as they head to New Jersey to take on the Devils. Puck drop is 5 p.m. MT.