DENVER — What looked like a spectacular goaltending effort and just enough offensively to get by on the second leg of a back-to-back quickly turned into a blown lead late in regulation and an overtime loss at Ball Arena.
The Avalanche surrendered the game-tying goal to Seattle’s Brandon Tanev with 2:30 remaining in regulation after an ugly turnover from superstar Nathan MacKinnon behind the Avs net. Kraken forward Yanni Gourde then ended it in overtime, catching the Avs in the midst of a bad line change and handing them a 3-2 loss on Sunday.
“I didn’t like our game tonight, again,” head coach Jared Bednar said following Colorado’s third consecutive loss (0-2-1). “You could say ‘well it was improved from giving up seven’ but I would hope so.”
The two self-inflicting wounds wasted a spectacular effort from goalie Alexandar Georgiev. The Avalanche’s top netminder was strong throughout the evening, stopping multiple breakaways and bailing out his defenders on a number of occasions before the breakdowns late in regulation and overtime.
“He was fantastic,” Bednar said of Georgiev. “He’s rested. He had his four-day break. Went in yesterday for a little bit and came out, which is why we did it yesterday. I don’t put any of those goals on him yesterday. And today, I thought he was our best player.”
Georgiev was especially strong for the Avs during a full two-minute 5-on-3 kill to start the third.
Leading by a goal in the dying seconds of the second period, defenseman Jack Johnson tripped up a Seattle player to give the Kraken a 6-on-5 attack to close out the period. When the buzzer sounded, an angry and animated Mikko Rantanen was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for jawing at a referee. He got called for the exact same call in Dallas on Saturday.
“You can’t do it. Can’t do it. He knows it. Can’t do it,” said Bednar, who admitted that he addressed the penalty with Rantanen. “My options are sit him the rest of the period or talk to him and turn him loose and hopefully he can bounce back. I didn’t think Mikko had a good night prior to that. So frustrations, probably some of it brought on by his own game.
“Games are too important this time of year. Points are too important. I think he understands that, he knows that. So for me, as long as I have that discussion, I’d rather turn him loose and see if he can dig in and help our team win and make up for it. So that was my decision.”
Rantanen was unhappy with a slash from Kraken defenseman Will Borgen that went uncalled just before Johnson was nabbed for tripping. His temper led to what you can call about as close to a sure thing for a goal as you can get in the NHL.
But the Avs did their part, killing off the entire two minutes thanks to a spectacular eight saves by Georgiev and a lengthy shift (1:50) by the top defensive pair of Cale Makar and Devon Toews.
But Seattle kept its foot on the pedal, outshooting the Avs 16-7 in the final period before controlling the puck for the entirety of overtime.
The Avs (34-21-6, 74 points) jumped ahead of the idle Winnipeg Jets (36-25-2, 74 points) and back into the top three in the Central Division because they have games in hand.
MacKinnon and forward Denis Malgin scored for the Avalanche.
“He’s scored a couple of big goals for us and we need depth in those moments,” forward Andrew Cogliano said of Malgin’s breakaway goal. “Especially in tight games and as we go down the stretch.”
Mackinnon opened the scoring on Colorado’s second shot of the evening. After seeing his five-game goal-scoring streak come to an end in Dallas on Saturday, MacKinnon tallied his 12th goal in 13 games since the All-Star break. He extended his home goal-scoring streak to six games and point streak at Ball Arena to 13 games. The Kraken responded midway through the second period thanks to Alex Wennberg’s deflection.
Georgiev was on his game until late in the third period with the exception of the Wennberg deflection. Every shot he saw, he stopped. Every clean shot was a clean save. Even through traffic, Georgiev was tracking pucks, challenging shooters on breakaways and was far and away Colorado’s best penalty killer. It was the type of performance the Avs needed from the starter after the team surrendered seven goals in consecutive games for the first time in team history.
But it was ultimately not enough to get the second point.
“Just unfortunate circumstances to have the game tied,” Makar said. “Felt like we were playing relatively well.”
The Avs shook up its forward lines in an attempt to spark their depth offensive pieces. Forward Lars Eller, playing in his third game since being acquired from Washington ahead of the trade deadline, centered Logan O’Connor and Cogliano. Alex Newhook centered the fourth line with wingers Evan Rodrigues and Malgin. And often a key piece of the bottom-six, forward Matt Nieto was elevated to the second line alongside center J.T. Compher and Rantanen.
Nichushkin also returned after missing Saturday’s game (illness). He played on the top line with Artturi Lehkonen and MacKinnon.
Colorado continues its homestand on Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks. Former Av Nico Sturm is expected to make his return to Denver for the first time since helping the Avs to a Stanley Cup championship last June. Sturm will be the last player on the Cup-winning team to receive his Stanley Cup ring.
