How was that for playoff hockey?
It’s been 742 days since the Avalanche hosted a playoff game in their building. And what a show they put on for the 7,741 fans at Ball Arena.
Gabe Landeskog had a goal, two assists and a fight on Monday to record a Gordie Howe hat trick, helping the top-seeded Avalanche defeat the No. 4 St. Louis Blues 4-1 in Game 1 of the West Division’s first round.
Top line center Nathan MacKinnon was also strong for Colorado, especially in its three-goal third-period outburst. He scored twice, including the empty-netter and added an assist. Defenseman Cale Makar scored a power-play goal in the first period and the third piece of the top line, Mikko Rantanen, had two assists.
But it was Landeskog’s performance that stood out for the Avalanche as they outshot St. Louis 50-23.
“Gabe was outstanding in leading the way,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said.
The raucous crowd wasted little time getting into the game. Not only was the playoff atmosphere already in full force, but Landeskog’s fight raised the bar.
“He’s the captain for a reason, to get a Gordie How hat trick,” Makar said of Landeskog’s first-period fight against Blues forward Brayden Schenn. “That was a good tempo setter right away. He definitely set the tempo.”
Deadlocked at 1-1 heading into the third, the Avs’ top line put them ahead just 30 seconds in and then made it 3-1 exactly eight minutes later.
Rantanen had the puck behind the net and fed it to MacKinnon while surrounded by three Blues players and he managed to one-time it past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington to make it 2-1.
MacKinnon later one-timed a pass from defenseman Sam Girard at the blue line that was tipped by Landeskog and beat the goalie, who had 31 saves through 40 minutes to keep it close.
“For us, it was just sticking to it. We kind of got off our game for a couple minutes in the second,” Makar said. “It just showed our resilience, we were able to get back on track. That quick one from Nate gave an energy boost to a lot of guys on the bench.”
Landeskog’s fight came in response to Schenn’s collision with Rantanen at center ice, nearly getting him with a dangerous knee-on-knee hit.
“I’m going to stand up for my teammates,” Landeskog said. “I don’t think the hit was that bad. Mikko, I think, tried to dodge him a little bit … I don’t think he put his knee out or anything. I didn’t think it was a dirty play but I kind of had a feeling Schenn was going to run around a little bit in the first period. He’s a physical player, a good player. Just have to stand up for my teammates and obviously, here playing at home, I thought the first 10 minutes that period, we were kind of tip-toeing our way into it with some nerves and adrenaline or whatever. I thought that was going to calm them down a little bit and get the crowd into it.”
The momentum from the fight sparked what eventually gave Colorado a 1-0 lead.
A stranger to minor penalties, Blues center and former Av Ryan O’Reilly was called for tripping MacKinnon. And Makar capitalized. The Avs were 1-for-3 on the power play and killed off the only two minors called against them, both to defenseman Ryan Graves.
Graves also made a strong play to keep the Blues from scoring on a wrap around.
And Binnington shut the door on the Avalanche on numerous occasions. Most notably in the second period on a 2-on-0 opportunity on Rantanen, where he lifted his pad in desperation while laying on his stomach to just catch the puck before it crossed the line.
He continued to make crucial saves in the third. Moments after MacKinnon’s 2-1 goal, Binnington made a sliding save on forward Brandon Saad.
“We didn’t make it hard enough for him in the second period as far as traffic goes,” Bednar said of Binnington. “We created some good looks, some good scoring opportunities, but he was seeing them all the way to the net. We have to do a better job of getting in front of him and creating some tips, screens, rebounds. We talked about it after the first and second and we got a nice one from Gabe going to the net, partial screen and a tip on the MacKinnon shot.”
Binnington tried to get in on the physicality. After the final buzzer sounded, Avs goalie Philipp Grubauer took a swipe at St. Louis’ Kyle Clifford in the crease and Binnington skated across the ice to challenge the Avs’ netminder. He was stopped by the referee and escorted to the dressing room.
“He can do whatever he wants. He’s not going to get to us, he’s not going to get to Grubi,” Landeskog said. “I’m sure he wants to just create some energy, try to do what he can to fire those guys up and that’s fine. It is what it is. We’ll be ready Wednesday night.”
Grubauer was solid in the Avalanche’s goal, making 22 saves and only surrendering a goal on a broken play that led to an open backdoor feed to Jordan Kyrou off the counter attack.
