Landeskog shootout winner pushes Avalanche past Vegas

Following a disastrous 7-1 loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings two nights ago, the Colorado Avalanche took the ice against another Pacific Division team in hopes of extending their lead in the race for the Western Conference’s final playoff spot.

With the Pacific-leading Vegas Golden Knights making their first official trip to Pepsi Center, the Avs were looking for a little redemption, not only for their meltdown two nights ago but also the 7-0 beatdown Vegas laid on Colorado back in October.

Despite another rash of last-minute injuries that kept some of their regular forwards out, the Avalanche rolled out to a hot start in the first period, putting pressure on Vegas and forcing goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to be great. The man they call “Flower” stepped to the challenge, turning away chance after chance from the Avalanche until some nifty passing helped Colorado finally break through.

On their second power play of the period, the Avalanche broke through the very aggressive penalty kill of Vegas with some great passing through the neutral zone. Alexander Kerfoot entered the zone with the puck and made a nifty pass to J.T. Compher, who one-touched the puck across to Carl Soderberg. With Fleury scrambling, Soderberg went high with it and made it 1-0 on his 16th goal of the season, tying his career-high.

The Avalanche would continue pressing but nothing broke through with the Avs taking their one-goal lead into the second period.

With the second period being the highest event period of the season for the Avalanche, it’s the frame that usually sees the most action and dictates what kind of third that gets seen.

Instead of deciding anything, the second period simply was a continuation of the first, with Colorado dominating puck possession but struggling to get actual shots on goal as Vegas did a good job of clogging shooting lanes and making life hard on Colorado’s shooters.

The one-goal lead for Colorado held through the second and into the third period, a crucial one for Colorado as they try to hold off the resilient St. Louis Blues in the race for the postseason.

Gabe Landeskog took a pass from Nathan MacKinnon and had a whole lot of net to shoot at but Fleury made a big pad save as Landeskog failed to elevate the puck into the part of the net that was uncovered.

The failure to convert on their myriad chances predictably cost the Avalanche as just moments later Jonathan Marchessault broke into the zone with some space and his wrist shot beat Semyon Varlamov cleanly, tying the game with over 18 minutes remaining.

Shortly after the tying goal, Blake Comeau found himself chasing down a puck for a breakaway and he beat the oncoming Fleury to the puck and deked him but he lost his footing and instead of scoring the easy goal for the lead he lost control and Vegas recovered in time to keep it a tie game.

The teams would go into something of a shell late in the third period, ensuring each got a point and getting one step closer to clinching playoff berths by going into overtime.

It was a typical overtime in today’s NHL where each team had a breakaway or odd-man rush but both goaltenders were up to the task and refused to budge. Their stalemate carried over into the shootout as each stopped the first two shooters before finally one of them gave some ground.

In the third and final round of the shootout, Marchessault was stopped by Varlamov and Landeskog followed it up by beating Fleury to win the game and push Colorado to 90 points on the season. The 2-1 victory was just their third shootout of the season.

The victory moved them three points clear of the Blues, who are currently the last team on the outside looking in, and put the Avalanche into a tie with the Minnesota Wild for third place. Both the Blues (one) and Wild (two) have games in hand on Colorado.

NOTES AND QUOTES

The Avalanche improved to 2-1 in shootouts this season and 1-0 on home ice in the
skills competition. Entering today’s contest, Colorado was the only team in the league
that had not played a shootout game at home.
Colorado is 26-10-2 on home ice this season, tied for the third-most home victories in
franchise history.
Wins Season
28 2000-01
27 2007-08
26 2017-18
26 2013-14
26 1996-97
The Avs are 34-7-3 when scoring the first goal of the game, tied for the third-most wins
(Tampa Bay) in the league when registering the game’s first tally.
Colorado finished 1-for-4 on the power play and is 18-for-60 on the man advantage
over its last 17 games (since Feb. 20), the second-best unit in the league during that
span (Toronto, 41.2%).
Colorado finishes the season with a 6-4-2 overall record in day games in 2017-18 and
a 5-1-1 mark at home in matinee contests.
Semyon Varlamov stopped all three attempts in the shootout to improve to 108-for-143
(.755) in his career, the best save percentage among goalies who have faced 100+
shootout attempts.

Carl Soderberg notched his 16th goal of the season, matching a career high set during
his rookie campaign in 2013-14 with the Boston Bruins.

Gabriel Landeskog is now 5-for-13 (38.5%) in shootouts throughout his career, four of
which have been game-deciding goals.

Alexander Kerfoot picked up his 39th point of the season to move into a tie for 10th
place in Avalanche history in rookie scoring (since 1995-96). Kerfoot surpasses
teammate Mikko Rantanen, who finished his rookie campaign with 38 points (20g, 18a)
and is tied with T.J. Galiardi, who registered 39 points (15g, 24a) during his first season
in 2009-10.

Mark Alt suited up in his first game for the Avalanche, finishing with two hits and one
blocked shot in 10:58 of ice time.

Shea Theodore (8) and Brad Hunt (7) each registered a season high for shots.
With the shootout loss, Vegas can clinch a playoff berth tonight if the St. Louis Blues
lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets in regulation AND the Los Angeles Kings lose to the
Edmonton Oilers in regulation.

Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog
On Today’s Game: “Right from the get-go, obviously we were hungry to respond from
the other night against L.A. and it’s a fun test against a team like this who has been
doing so well all season long. We come out and we have a real strong first period I
think. In the second, we got a lot of momentum shift and playing down there in their
zone and obviously, [I] could give us a little bit of a cushion there in the third period.
You know, Nate (Colorado C Nathan MacKinnon) feeds me a back-door tap-in and
Fleury (Vegas G Marc-Andre Fleury) makes a nice save and then (Vegas C Jonathan)
Marchessault goes down and scores after that. In the third period, I mean that was
some high-pace hockey there, physical, and it was fun. I think the refs noticed what
was on the line and kind of let a little bit go and that was a lot of fun.”
On His Game-Winning Shootout Goal: “That’s kind of my go-to move I guess, come in
from an angle and then cut and shoot low blocker. I think when Mikko (Colorado RW
Mikko Rantanen) came in, there wasn’t much room there low blocker side. I wasn’t
sure when I came down what I was going to do and then I just kind of cut, closed my
eyes and shot it. He (Vegas G Marc-Andre Fleury) made some nice saves during the
game on me and it was nice to get that one back.”

Colorado RW Mikko Rantanen
On The Power Play: “They have a good PK. We play against them Monday night so I
think we have to move the puck a little bit ahead of the pressure and probably try to
get more shots, but I think second unit did a great job and got a lead for us in the first,
so it was a good job.”
On The Atmosphere: “I have never been in the playoffs, it’s probably a little bit better in
playoffs, but yeah, it was kind of a playoff atmosphere out there. Full rink and it’s loud.
You can’t even hear your teammates or anything so it was a lot of fun and the biggest
thing is the two points. Every guy on the team did such a great job [today].”

Colorado G Semyon Varlamov
On His Shootout Performance: “Like today, I had no idea what the players were going
to do against me because usually you kind of learn from the past. You kind of know
like the players, what they [are] going to do, like their moves. But today, I had no idea
what they were going to do so I just tried to stay patient.”
On The Crowd Chanting His Name: “I love it. It’s the best feeling when the fans are
cheering your name. It’s the best feeling. That’s what we play for, that’s what we train
for. It’s very exciting and I want to say thank you to the fans. We really appreciate it.
They came today, it was sold out I’m sure. It was a great atmosphere. I felt like we
played like a playoff game.”

Vegas RW James Neal
On Today’s Game: “Great atmosphere. Fans were into it so you could definitely feel it
on the ice. Could be a first-round matchup, playing playoff-type hockey right now so it
was a good game.”
On The Loss: “I think it went both ways, we were both playing hard. Obviously we have
to respect their speed, especially with (Colorado C Nathan) MacKinnon out there. He’s
a tough player to cover, I thought we did a good job on him tonight, guys were tough
on him. We just have to bury one in the shootout, (Vegas G Marc-Andre) Fleury played
unbelievable.”

Vegas LW Jonathan Marchessault
On Vegas G Marc-Andre Fleury’s Performance: “He has been like that all year, he
keeps us in the game every game. It has definitely been fun to watch, but we can’t give
up grade-A chances like that.”
On The Team’s Performance: “It was a sloppy first period, definitely. We have to be
more regular and play 60 minutes. We’re not having as much of a good stretch, but I
think we are facing teams that are more desperate than us and that’s the way it goes.
We keep playing good hockey and we got a big point tonight.”