Goalie Philipp Grubauer made 18 saves and right winger Mikko Rantanen scored in the second period Friday as the Avalanche defeated the Los Angeles Kings 2-0 at Ball Arena. Colorado, which got an empty-net goal from Nathan MacKinnon, outshot L.A. 46-18.
Grubauer made his 21st start in 25 games, becoming the first Avalanche goalie since Semyon Varlamov in 2013 to start 21 times in the first 25 games. Grubauer’s four shutouts are tied for most in the NHL and he is second in wins (14). Grubauer and the Avs also broke a club record after allowing less than 30 shots against for the 15th straight game.
Colorado has allowed less than 20 shots in each of the past three games, including just 14 in each of the first two against the Arizona Coyotes.
“It takes everybody, not just defensemen,” Grubauer said. “It takes all the forwards to work back and do the right thing. It starts in the offensive zone. We don’t want to give up too many odd-man rushes so everybody has got to be aware of who’s on the ice and what the play is.”
Rantanen scored on a wrist shot to cap a long possession period in the offensive zone. Rantanen’s 13th of the season beat the traffic in front before getting past goaltender Cal Peterson. It’s Rantanen’s third game-winner this year.
However, the Avalanche’s scoring struggles continued. Colorado has produced 127 shots over its past three games but has just six goals, including MacKinnon’s empty-netter.
After Colorado’s 46 shots Wednesday, Bednar said his team’s shot quality was not up to par with where he wanted it to be. But he liked the chances against L.A.
“I thought it was pretty good,” Bednar said. “Sometimes you just got to waste them to the net and hope for some rebounds and go to the net. If I look at this game I’ll see a pretty good mix of scoring chances and shot quality.”
The Avs were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. Center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare took a minor with 4:30 remaining. The Kings started to swarm, even getting a couple of good looks in the slot after struggling to generate many shots in the third period.
“You always got to be alert,” Grubauer said. “Just because they don’t get a shot for five or six minutes doesn’t mean I can just hook my umbrella up, hang back in the crease and enjoy the feud. That’s not the case.”
On the empty-net goal, Rantanen and MacKinnon had a 2-on-0 breakaway and Rantanen passed up an opportunity to score a West Division-leading 14th goal to give it to MacKinnon in an unselfish act.
“When you get a breakaway on the empty net you kind of look around to make sure nobody is backchecking on you and if you have teammates with you,” Rantanen said. “It’s a pretty easy decision there just to give it to Nate.”
Renouf drops the gloves: Dan Renouf and Kings Matt Luff tangled up in the second period, just 28 seconds after the Rantanen goal. It was the fourth fighting major for the Avalanche in 2021.
Schedule change: Colorado’s second game against the Kings on Sunday has been switched from a 5 pm to a 3:30 pm local start. The game will also be televised nationally on NBCSN.