The Colorado Avalanche dropped the second leg of their three-game East Coast road trip to open the 2017-18 season, 4-1 to the New Jersey Devils. After a 4-2 victory agains the Rangers in New York in Game No. 1, Colorado had a devil of time with New Jersey and one of their former draft picks on Saturday.
Colorado ceded the first two goals of the game, both on the power play. Adam Henrique opened the scoring at 4:04 in the first period, assisted by Kyle Palmieri and Will Butcher, the former Avalanche draft pick. Anton Lindholm committed the interference penalty that set up Henrique’s goal.
Palmieri and Butcher again assisted on a power-play goal in the second period, this time with Jimmy Hayes beating Jonathan Bernier at the 2:52 mark. Carl Soderberg halved the deficit midway through the period, but Colorado would cede yet another power-play goal in the waning seconds of the second. Butcher tallied his third assist of the day when Jesper Bratt stretched the New Jersey lead back to two.
Special teams would again be Colorado’s undoing in the third period, this time while on the power play themselves. After Marcus Johansson took a four-minute double minor for high-sticking, the Avalanche gave up a short-handed goal to John Moore, assisted by Bratt.
Butcher earned the first star of the game for his three-assist performance. The 2017 Hobey Baker Award winner chose not to sign with Colorado following his University of Denver career, instead signing with New Jersey in free agency.
The loss drops Colorado to 1-1-0 on the season with a game in Boston on Monday awaiting. It is the first of a pair of games with the Bruins; the second is Colorado’s home opener on Wednesday.
