Winning proves elusive for putrid Avalanche after another loss

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME RUNDOWN

The Colorado Avalanche took their losing ways to the Pacific Northwest for the first time this season tonight as they headed to Vancouver to take on the Canucks. Having been the league’s worst team at home by a wide margin, the road has been something of a safe haven for the Avalanche as eight of their 12 wins this season have come away from the Pepsi Center.

The first period of tonight’s contest was the kind of start the Avalanche have looked for consistently as they jumped out to an early shot lead but couldn’t find the back of the net as Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller stood tall, as he typically does against Colorado, and the Avs’ best scoring chance came on a broken play in the offensive zone and Gabriel Landeskog fired one flush off the post after having beaten Miller. Colorado’s own goaltender, Calvin Pickard, came up huge with a save on a point-blank scoring chance from Loui Eriksson, who scored in the team’s previous meeting in Denver.

The goaltending stalemate lasted through the first period as each netminder stopped the six shots each of them faced and a late John Mitchell penalty put Vancouver on the power play to start the second period. Nothing came of it as the Avalanche actually clamped down on the penalty kill for once. Naturally, it didn’t last long.

Continuing his season-long horrid play, Francois Beauchemin’s incompetence with the puck and then laziness in getting back to cover the odd-man rush he helped create opened the door for the Canucks and Bo Horvat’s one-timer past Pickard put them up 1-0 and capped off a strong start to the second frame by Vancouver.

The Avalanche took advantage of a Canucks penalty and after a power play of creating quality scoring chances and predictably just missing them, Nikita Zadorov made a great play at the blueline to keep the puck in the zone and his pass to Mikko Rantanen was rewarded when Rantanen actually shot the puck. The unicorn of a Rantanen shot was rewarded when he blitzkrieged the puck past a helpless Miller and tied the game at 1-1, giving the Avalanche their first power play goal in their last 26 opportunities in the process.

Colorado’s late-period incompetence inevitably came back to haunt them, however, as another late penalty landed in the back of their net after the Canucks controlled the puck throughout the full two minutes. It helped mightily the Avalanche wasted multiple clearing attempts by blindly throwing weak clears at Canucks players and it eventually cost them when Mikhail Grigorenko was determined to randomly cover an empty patch of ice instead of marking his man and Sven Baertschi walked in from the point and cleanly beat Pickard to put Vancouver up 2-1 heading into the third period.

The third period followed a pretty predictable Avalanche formula, beginning with Tyson Barrie tying the game on a great wrist shot from the point that made its way through traffic and beat Miller at 11:42.

The tying goal meant the Avalanche had to play safe, smart hockey and try to get to overtime like literally all the other teams in the NHL. They failed to do so, of course, when Cody Goloubef made his second penalty of the game when he carelessly flipped the puck up and over the glass. Colorado’s penalty kill is horrible so, naturally, Baertschi scored his second of the night on a rebound and made it 3-2 with under four minutes left to play. Colorado has had zero late game magic this season and that continued in yet another loss for the Avalanche.

THREE STARS

1. Sven Baertschi
2. Nathan MacKinnon
3. Bo Horvat

PLAY OF THE GAME

Baertschi’s first goal showcased a number of things, including the excellent puck movement of Vancouver’s power play and the utter incompetence of the Avalanche forwards, who lost their rotation assignments so easily you’d think none of the guys out there would be accustomed to playing in that situation. Also, it was a pretty great shot from Baertschi.

TURNING POINT

Baertschi’s second goal made it 3-2 and forced the Avalanche into a familiar position: trying to make a late comeback and get the game into overtime. They’ve yet to accomplish it once this season and tonight was no different.

BY THE NUMBERS

WHAT’S NEXT

Colorado’s quick two-game road trip to start 2017 concludes Wednesday night in Calgary. Puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m. MST.