It was a rare poor performance for the Avalanche at even-strength Saturday and former Avalanche forward Ryan O’Reilly made them pay for it.
The St. Louis captain recorded a hat trick as his Blues emerged 5-3 winners against the team that drafted him 11 years ago, ending the Avalanche’s five-game winning streak. The Blues outscored Colorado 4-1 at even strength.
Colorado (31-10-4, 66 points) is now 18-2-2 in its last 22 games and remains two points back of Vegas for first in the West Division with a game in hand.
Superstars Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar each recorded one goal and three points but were a combined minus-5. MacKinnon extended his point streak to 13 games (eight goals, 24 points). For Makar, his three points were not enough to erase what he felt was a less than stellar performance.
“A lot of the goals fall on me,” Makar said. “Two of the goals at least were my guy and I lost them.”
The Avalanche jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 3:01 thanks to goals from Makar and winger Gabe Landeskog. They then surrendered three straight to St. Louis, including two to O’Reilly before the first intermission. MacKinnon tied it 3-3 in the second period where the Avs limited the Blues to five shots.
With the game deadlocked midway through the third period, a 5-on-3 opportunity for St. Louis was the deciding factor. Avs center Nazem Kadri was called for holding before a trip from Ryan Graves set the Blues up for the two-man advantage and they wasted little time scoring.
Blues forward Mike Hoffman took a pass from defenseman Torey Krug and fired it past Avs goalie Devan Dubnyk to make it 4-3.
The penalties against Kadri and Graves were both argued on the ice. But Avs coach Jared Bednar saw no issues with either call.
“To me, that’s just discipline,” Bednar said. “We chip the puck on the Kadri penalty and go forecheck and not try to grab them to get by them. Graves, he steps into the guy behind the net instead of reaching in with his stick. It’s just doing the right things and playing the right way.”
Before an empty-netter from O’Reilly sealed the win, the Avs had a power-play opportunity of their own with 4:13 remaining. Despite scoring two power-play goals leading up to that call, Colorado was unable to generate much offense. And the Blues were strong on the kill.
“We have to be able to come up in big moments for the team and we know that,” Makar said of the top unit’s inability to tie the game late on the power play. “That’s what good teams do. When you get into the playoffs, we’ll have to be ready for that.”
Dubnyk has started each of the last three games for Colorado, all against the Blues. He is 2-1 after making 25 saves in the loss. The Avs still have one more matchup against St. Louis on the road before returning home — the fourth consecutive game at Enterprise Center — a scenario rarely seen in the NHL.
“It’s going to be another playoff-style game,” Makar said.
