Streaks are meant to be broken. Even if they come against an unlikely opponent.
The Avalanche’s 18-game winning streak at Ball Arena and 10 consecutive wins overall were both halted by the Western Conference’s last-place Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday. The 3-2 loss is just the second since December, both of which have come after regulation.
“Whenever it was gonna end it was gonna suck,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “Losing sucks no matter who it’s against whether home or away.”
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Despite the loss, Colorado enters its week-long All-Star break on a 15-0-2 run since the new year, surpassing its previous franchise mark from the Stanley Cup-winning 2000-01 season. Though it was a disappointing ending, given Arizona’s tying goal late in regulation to force overtime, the Avs are more proud of their accomplishments the past month than anything heading into the break.
They’ve played 17 games in 31 days, which included three sets of back-to-back contests.
“I’m proud of our guys, what they’ve been doing and how hard they’ve been playing,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “They’re due for a break and then we’ll reset and come back after to a really tough schedule again.”
Come-from-behind wins after falling into a hole have become somewhat of a regularity for one of the NHL’s best.
Since the new year, the Avalanche have needed to claw back when trailing by one, two or sometimes three goals oftentimes needing extra time to complete the comeback. They won four of five games in overtime and two of three in the shootout.
“Finding ways to win even though we haven’t played our best,” Landeskog said. “I think that’s the strength of a good team. We’ve got some areas that we have to get better at and some things we’ve got to clean up.”
Center Nazem Kadri started the scoring for the Avs on a marvelous individual effort. It was his 19th goal and 60th point in just 41 games. Colorado later got another second-period goal from winger Mikko Rantanen to make it 2-1. His team-leading 24th of the season also came in his 41st appearance.
The Coyotes pulled their goalie late in regulation and capitalized on the 6-on-5 attack to knot things up. In the extra frame, Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin was whistled for a trip, giving Arizona a power play with 2:14 remaining.
The penalty kill unit made easy work of the opportunity to remain a perfect 3-for-3 on the night. The only goal in the shootout came from Coyotes forward Alex Galchenyuk, who also scored the first Arizona goal in the second period.
The penalty to Nichushkin was called just moments after what Landeskog thought was a missed call against his teammate Kadri as the Avs were rushing up the ice with an opportunity to end the game before the shootout.
“Their guy just blatantly skates in front of Naz. It’s a two-on-one the length of the ice and he just takes Naz out of the play,” Landeskog explained. “If that’s not a penalty then Val’s shouldn’t be a penalty either in my opinion.”
The Avs enter the All-Star break with a 32-8-4 record. Their 68 points are one back of the Florida Panthers for the most in the NHL, though the Avalanche have three games in hand. Colorado’s .773 points percentage tops the league.
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Aarif Deen is our Colorado Avalanche beat reporter. He covers Avs games live from Ball Arena and attends practices, media availabilities and other events pertaining to the Avs on the daily beat. He is also a co-host of Hockey Mountain High: Your go-to Avalanche Podcast. Deen joined Mile High Sports upon completion of his bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in business administration from the University of Michigan – Dearborn. Before Mile High Sports, Deen worked for the Michigan Wolverines Athletics Department as the assistant sports information director.
Follow him on Twitter @runwriteAarif
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