The St. Louis Blues came to Pepsi Center on the second night of a back-to-back and beat the Avalanche, who were off two days of rest, by the score of 4-3.
The Avs looked like the more tired team to start the game but managed to get out of the first period with the lead 1-0. The power play converted on its first opportunity of the night when Alex Kerfoot cleaned up the rebound after J.T. Compher redirected the puck on net. The power play goal is the sixth time Colorado has converted on the power play this season.
The lone penalty of the first period gave Colorado momentum and the Avalanche ended up winning the period in shots-on-goal by a tally of 16-8.
The Blues evened up the score 1-1 after a counter attack 39 seconds in to the second period allowed former Av Paul Stastny to score his third goal of the season.
St. Louis continued to have momentum throughout the second period and after a few missed opportunities for Colorado, the Blues quickly scored two goals and made it a 3-1 game. Jaden Schwartz scored the first of the two, which would be the former Colorado College Tiger’s fourth goal in two nights.
The second goal came 48 seconds later on a Vince Dunn wrister that beat Jonathan Bernier just above his glove hand.
After blocking a shot with his hand, J.T. Compher left the game in the second period and did not return.
An offensive rush about four minutes in to the third period generated by Blake Comeau ended with a Blues defender running in to his own goalie. The collision carried both the goaltender and the defenseman into the corner and left the net wide open for the Avalanche to score. Comeau scored the goal, which was assisted by Collin Wilson and Alex Kerfoot and the score was 3-2 in favor of St. Louis.
At 9:05 in the third the Blues scored their fourth goal of the game just seconds after a Patrick Nemeth penalty was killed off. The goal appeared to have taken the last bit of wind out of Colorado’s sails, but another strange defensive play by St. Louis gave the Avalanche another goal on a wide-open net. Alex Kerfoot scored the goal making it 4-3 and would be his second goal of the game and third of the season.
The Avalanche harnessed the energy from the goal to create a momentum swing and managed to score off of a two-on-one, but a coach’s challenge by St. Louis showed that the play was offside and the goal was called back.
The final push from the Avalanche came with an empty net, but they ultimately were unable to get one more puck past Carter Hutton and the Avalanche lost their third consecutive game.
Shots on goal ended in a toal of 41-28 in Colorado’s favor as Jonathan Bernier was credited with the loss.
The Avalanche will have four days without a game before they look to bounce back from their three-game losing streak at home against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.
