COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Colorado Avalanche’s chances of winning the Central Division took a significant hit after a dud Monday night against one of the worst teams in the NHL.
Alex Nylander, who was playing for Pittsburgh’s AHL team five weeks ago, scored twice to help a depleted Blue Jackets lineup to a 4-1 victory against the Avs.
Colorado began the night three points behind the Dallas Stars for the top spot in both the Central and the Western Conference and with a game in hand. But the Avalanche wasted it with a sluggish night against the last-place team in the East that was missing three of its top six goal scorers.
“Frustrating night,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Second period, our game kind of went away. We didn’t execute well enough in the offensive zone. The bulk of their chances in the second period came from our turnovers in the offensive zone.”
Colorado racked up loads of shots on goal (47) and shot attempts (79), particularly after falling behind, but Grade-A scoring chances were tough to come by. The Avalanche had won four games in a row on the road and was coming off an emotional come-from-behind victory Saturday against the Nashville Predators at Ball Arena.
But, just like a week ago when the game that followed a wild comeback against Pittsburgh proved to be a stumble against a lottery-bound club (Montreal), the Avs looked off at times and lacked their typical finishing touch when the chances were there.
“We were not clicking,” forward Mikko Rantanen said. “We had a lot of shots, maybe didn’t get in front of the goalie enough. Power play was kind of off. Chemistry was off. I don’t know the reason, but it is sometimes like that. We’ve just got to try and move on quick.”
The Avs were far from their best in the first period but carried the play at times and just missed on a couple of golden chances. Things unraveled during the middle 20 minutes.
Samuel Girard missed a wide-open net on a rebound at one end as the puck bounced on him. Later in the same possession, the Blue Jackets turned the rebound of a Cale Makar shot into a rush the other way. Kirill Marchenko went straight to the front of the net, neither Miles Wood nor Makar went with him and he tipped a pass from Erik Gudbranson through Justus Annunen’s legs to put Columbus in front midway through the second.
Johnny Gaudreau gave the puck up to Josh Manson at the right point in the Colorado offensive zone, but Manson returned the favor with a turnover to set up the second goal. That led to a 2-on-1, and Nylander roofed a wrist shot from the right circle to make it 2-0.
Nylander struck again late in the period for his 10th goal in 17 games since joining the Blue Jackets. Sean Walker was unable to corral the rebound of Jake Bean’s shot from the left point, but Nylander did and flipped it into the net for a three-goal lead.
“It just seemed like the chances we gave up or the mistakes we made ended up in the back of our net,” forward Andrew Cogliano said. “Their goalie played well. … Not the way we wanted to start the trip and we need to regroup.”
Chris Wagner deflected Walker’s shot from the left point 4:39 into the third period to get Colorado on the board. It was his first goal in 10 games for the Avalanche this season. He was recalled before this contest and replaced Yakov Trenin in the lineup.
Shortly after Nathan MacKinnon hit the post and the Avalanche appeared to making one last push, the puck bounced over Makar’s stick as he tried to desperately prevent an empty-net goal, and Cole Sillinger tapped home a centering feed from Alexandre Texier to end any doubt.
Annunen had been red-hot in net for the Avs, yielding just nine goals in his past seven appearances. This was his first game with a sub-.900 save percentage since Feb. 15 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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