The Colorado Avalanche fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
“It was good at times and not good enough at others. The start of the game, good energy, good pace. We faded away for 20 minutes in there, and not from lack of effort,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “I didn’t love our puck play tonight. Our execution coming out of our zone through the neutral zone a little bit, even ozone play.”
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Valeri Nichushkin got the Avs on the board at 5:53 into the third period. Gabriel Landeskog gave the team hope to bring it within one with less than two and a half minutes left, but it wasn’t enough.
The Avs were missing Cale Makar, who is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The Golden Knights were missing Mark Stone, but the teams matched up evenly in the first. Colorado lacked execution in the second period and dialed it up in the third.
“We had a lot of juice and energy in the third period to try and fight our way back into it, but you’re going to have to play a full 60 better than we did tonight, especially with the puck,” Bednar said.
Mile High Sports’ Colleen Flynn breaks it all down in “Wake the Puck Up.”
