The Colorado Avalanche are in a 0-3 hole in the best-of-seven series of the Western Conference Finals.
After taking a 3-0 lead in the first period, the team imploded for the next 40 minutes. Gabriel Landeskog opened up scoring, followed by Nazem Kadri and a short-handed goal from Jack Drury.
Mark Stone, who returned from injury for his debut in the series, scored 19 seconds into the middle frame. That changed the momentum of the game, and it went downhill from there.
“First nine minutes, it looked like portions of Game 1 for me and parts of Game 2, where we were mismanaging the puck. Breakouts, and then they just got more competitive, and we didn’t stay with that intensity,” head coach Jared Bednar said.
Nathan MacKinnon took a hard shot to the knee in the second, dropped, and skated off to the bench. He played two short shifts and then went down the tunnel. He returned in the third period, only to play four shifts for a total of four minutes and five seconds.
After the game, Bednar mentioned losing MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin, who did not play any of the third period. Nichushkin’s injury is unknown, and we will hopefully get clarity on Monday.
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The Avalanche face elimination with the team’s emotional state as “low as it can get,” Bednar said.
Landeskog said the team needs to “lick our wounds, back to work tomorrow.”
Colorado needs to figure out how to play a full 60 minutes to give itself a chance, or else Tuesday could be the last game of the postseason.
Mile High Sports’ Colleen Flynn breaks down the defeat from T-Mobile Arena in “Wake the Puck Up.”