After winning four in a row, the Colorado Avalanche will now be looking to start another winning streak as they fell 4-3 in overtime to the visiting Florida Panthers Monday night. The Avalanche are now 1-12 in overtime this season.
Prior to the game against the Panthers, the Avalanche were relatively quiet on trade deadline day, only bringing in veteran forward Derick Brassard into the fold. He eventually went on to score in the game against his former team.
“The first period took me a couple of shifts to get used to it and get comfortable out there,” Brassard said. “And as far as the goal it was a great play by Gravsy [Graves] there. I felt like we played a good game in general, but maybe we needed a little bit more tonight and that’s why we didn’t get the extra point.”
Despite the result, ever since the Avalanche changed up their lines, one of the players who has been able to get his game going has been forward Tyson Jost. He did break out of that, tallying the first goal of the game to give the Avalanche the 1-0 lead over the Panthers. Since being called down the Colorado Eagles earlier this month, Jost has found his game lately as he has scored in the past two games.
“He has been good,” Avs head coach Jared Bednar said of Jost. “He is playing with more confidence and using his legs. I find him to be competing harder and being a little bit more relentless on the puck to turn pucks back over and he is willing to check for his chances. I think he is much improved since he has been back, for sure.”
With the Avalanche carrying a 1-0 lead into the middle frame, momentum stayed on their side as Mikko Rantanen found the back of the net to extend the lead to 2-0 over the Panthers.
Despite that strong 2-0 start, momentum shifted to Florida’s side at the end of the second as forwards Troy Brouwer and Evgenii Dadonov scored in the closing minutes to tie up the game heading into the third period.
“We had a really good start to the game,” Bednar said. “We had chances in the first period, we checked, and we didn’t give up anything on the defensive side and we started the second period the same way. Then next thing you know we were happy to trade chances, and when you trade chances you might as well flip a coin and see who is going to win.”
“It’s at the time of the year now when if you want to secure your victory, you gotta create chances and check to make sure they don’t get any,” the head coach finished.
After being traded to the Avalanche earlier this afternoon, the Avs were able to reclaim the one-goal lead with a tally from Brassard, for his first goal in his first game with the Avalanche. The lead did not last long, however, as Panthers forward Mike Hoffman found the back of the net for his second point of the game to help force overtime.
Overtime continued to not be kind to the Avalanche, as Florida notched the game-winning goal with Aaron Ekblad scoring only 26 seconds into the sudden death period.
“I couldn’t tell you,” Avalanche veteran forward Matt Calvert said of what they need to do to win in overtime. “We need to be able to bear down and get that first overtime win and hopefully the rest will come.”
The Avalanche will be looking to get back on track when they host the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. MT.
