DENVER — The Avalanche’s penalty kill was doing good work through the first 57 minutes of this game. But it doesn’t mean that Martin Necas’ penalty at 16:40 of the third wasn’t worrisome.
The Avs, leading by a goal at the time, needed the PK to step up once again. It did. Necas eventually added an empty-netter, and the score ended 4-1 on Sunday at Ball Arena.
“He owed us that one,” head coach Jared Bednar joked. “He threw it over the glass, with time, when the whole rink was empty, so put a little stress on us.”
Colorado’s best penalty killer was the goalie. Scott Wedgewood made nine of his 28 saves while the Avs were killing one of the four penalties they took. He was primarily on his game on that Necas kill to help secure the lead and the win.
“Wedge did his best work on the penalty kill,” Bednar said. “Penalty kill was good, their power play, I thought, was really good. And Wedge is our best penalty killer. To me, that’s the difference in the hockey game.”
The NHL’s leader in wins made two massive stops on that PK. First, Palmieri stood right in front and got a pass from Jonathan Drouin behind the goal that was stopped with 2:44 remaining in regulation. The Isles called timeout, pulled Ilya Sorokin for the extra attacker, and got an even better chance late in the PP.
This time it was Matt Barzal sending it cross-ice to Bo Horvat. Wedgewood was able to go right to left and tracked the puck the entire way. He had to earn his 11th win of the season.
“It’s a weak side lefty, and he’s in a tough spot to get there,” Wedgewood said of the Horvat shot. “I just kind of sealed and made sure there were no holes, and got it in the hip. And we make a good clearing attempt.”
Necas’ empty-net goal came with 34.8 seconds remaining. But on the ensuing shift, Brent Burns fired it from the point and Brock Nelson got a stick on it to deflect the puck past Sorokin. Nelson got his tally against his former team and he did it with 16 seconds remaining.
It was his first two-point game of the season.
“One of the things that’s helping him again is he’s getting to the interior of the ice, a high percentage of his shots are coming from the interior of the ice,” Bednar said. “He’s been snake bitten a little bit, but we’re starting to see a little bit more production.”
The Avs got off to a shaky start. It was a putrid first period in general, but Colorado, especially, had nothing going early.
The Isles got on the board at just 2:05. It was a nice goal from Emil Heineman, who used his skate to redirect the puck past Avs goalie Wedgewood without making a kicking motion. Heineman’s ninth of the year was the only tally in the first, and the only true highlight of the period.
The Avs got a power play opportunity, but didn’t do much of anything with it. The shots were 7-7 at the intermission.
But the second was different. Colorado came out flying and quickly tied it, then took the lead.
First, Cale Makar made the best pass of the game, sending Ross Colton in on the breakaway. The Avs’ depth forward made the most of the opportunity and beat Sorokin clean with a wrist shot in a one-on-one play. Colton’s third goal and 10th point of the season evened the score.
Just two shifts later, the Avs got right back to it. Gabe Landeskog helped keep the puck in the zone, and Victor Olofsson redirected a Sam Malinski point shot to make it 2-1 at 5:51. Olofsson’s sixth of the season, all of which were scored at home, stood as the eventual game winner.
“I mean, I gotta try to get going on the road for sure,” Olofsson said. But I like playing here. It’s a lot of fun playing in front of our fans.”
The goaltending greatness didn’t come from just one side. Sorokin did his best to keep the Islanders in this game until the end. He had 24 stops — none better than a desperation glove save while lying on his back against Colton.
Moments later, Gavin Brindley was called for a penalty, and the Islanders had chances to tie it up. Wedgewood, again, was solid.
But that Isles power play ended early. This game didn’t lack physicality, and it eventually led to a fight.
While on the PK, Brent Burns knocked down Heineman in the corner. And moments later, Josh Manson pushed Anders Lee into the fallen Heineman. When Lee got up, he went right at Manson, and the two dropped the gloves. Manson quickly got him with a right that knocked the Isles captain down quickly.
The crowd loved it. Lee got an extra two for roughing, negating the Islanders’ PP. Colorado couldn’t score on their side of the power play either. The Avs were 0-for-3 on the man advantage.
Colorado improved to 13-1-5 and 7-0-2 in nine home games. The Avs are far and away the NHL’s best team in the early going. The team has an .816 points percentage through 19 games.
“We’ve been pretty consistent. It’s not always going to be total domination in every game,” Bednar said. “You gotta make one more play than they do to win hockey games, and we’ve been consistent with that. And it’s different guys stepping up on different nights.”
Positives
Landeskog Stands Out
Sometime during the second period, I had pointed out that Landeskog was more noticeable than usual.
There were some bad shifts in there for his line, and thanks to Wedgewood, no goals against on any of them. But positively, Landeskog did have some great moments.
On the Olofsson goal, Landeskog did an excellent job cycling before eventually being the key in keeping the puck in the zone. It directly led to the game-winning goal.
He was initially credited with a secondary assist on the play, but it was later taken away as the puck deflected off an Isles player before getting to Malinski.
Physically, he was laying the body throughout. He and Scott Mayfield frequently clashed after the whistle, especially in the second period. In that same frame, Landeskog laid out Alex Romanov behind the Islanders’ net and got a big cheer from the crowd.
The rust is slowly but surely shaking off, and the captain is finding his stride.
Negatives
Dreadful First Period
The opening 20 minutes of this one were some of the worst hockey the Avs have played all season. They conceded an early goal, couldn’t generate any dangerous shots on the opposing goalie, and struggled to connect on a pass.
They were turning the puck over seemingly on every shift, and Wedgewood had to bail them.
The one good thing you can take away from this is that they turned it around rather quickly. From the opening shift of the second period, they were shot out of a cannon to take a lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the night.
