Avalanche Capitalizes On Strong Start

It wasn't on the first shot of the game like the Colorado Avalanche's previous two contests, but once again it didn't take long for the club to find the back of the net.
The difference this time was the Avs didn't let off the gas.
Colorado scored three goals in the first period and went on to defeat the Nashville Predators 5-3 in Game 3 of their Stanley Cup Playoff series on Monday night at Pepsi Center. The Avs victory cuts the Predators' first-round series lead to 2-1, with Game 4 set for Wednesday in Denver.
"Our guys were ready to go right from the start tonight," said Colorado head coach Jared Bednar. "Great energy in the building again, fans were awesome. Our guys were energized, and we were on our toes and the aggressors early in that game. It paid off for us."

Blake Comeau scored the opening marker of the contest just 1:50 after puck drop, chipping a centering pass from Carl Soderberg past Pekka Rinne from the low slot. It was Colorado's second shot of the outing after Soderberg fired the first 12 seconds earlier.

The Avs scored on their initial shot in both Games 1 and 2 in Nashville, becoming the first team to do so in consecutive playoff contests since the Boston Bruins did it in Games 2 and 3 of the 2013 Eastern Conference Final at the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In the first two contests of the playoffs, the Predators came back and secured the victory in front of their home crowd. That wasn't the case in the third outing of Round 1, with the Avalanche playing its first game in its friendly confines.
"We made a few adjustments tonight, and that was important for us," said Comeau, whose marker was his second of the series and third of his postseason career. "When we got the first goal, we stayed aggressive, stuck with what we needed to do to be successful and a big part of that is playing with speed, getting the puck up to the forwards and shooting lots of pucks on net."

Gabriel Bourque tallied his second of the series midway through the opening frame on a redirection in the slot to give Colorado its first multiple-goal lead of the series. Nathan MacKinnon then scored his first of back-to-back goals after Gabriel Landeskog won a puck battle in the neutral zone and sprung him on a breakaway with less than two minutes left before the intermission.
The last time the Avs scored three markers in the first period of a playoff contest was Game 4 of the 2008 Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Minnesota Wild.
MacKinnon registered his second of the game at 4:25 of the second period on a shot from the slot that hit both the left post and cross bar before settling across the goal line, and that was it for Rinne, who was replaced with backup Juuse Saros for the rest of the night. Rinne, Nashville's likely Vezina Trophy finalist, allowed four goals on 15 shots.

"It doesn't happen very often that he gets taken out of the net, but for us, our mindset doesn't change," said Mark Barberio of Rinne's night being cut short. "Their backup, Saros, is a good goalie as well, so for us, nothing changed. We wanted to keep the forechecking hard and setting good gaps."
The Predators showed why they are the Presidents' Trophy winners and went to the Stanley Cup Final a year ago in the second half of Game 3, as they had a strong push and were able to get within two scores, but they couldn't close the deficit any more.

"There were a couple times in the third where they had some momentums shifts, but that is going to happen," Comeau said. "There's little momentum swings throughout the game. I think you're up three goals, they're going to push. We just got to make sure that we're not sitting back on our heels and push back as well.
The over capacity crowd of 18,087 witnessed another Avalanche home victory after seeing a franchise record-tying 28 during the regular season. The Avs fed off that energy in Pepsi Center, and the results showed on the scoreboard.
"The atmosphere out there was great tonight. The crowd was amazing," Comeau said. "To step on the ice and see all of those white [pom poms] and everyone up on their feet was awesome. I've said it before, we've played well at home all season and the crowd has been a big reason for it."
The Avs need more of the same on Wednesday in Game 4, where they'll have a chance to even the series before returning to Nashville for the fifth contest of the best-of-seven set.
MACK GOALS
Nathan MacKinnon has only played in nine career Stanley Cup Playoff outings, and he's recorded multi-point outings in five of them.
He did it again in Game 3 of the series against Nashville, as he tallied twice for his first multi-goal performance in the NHL postseason.

Twelve of his 15 career playoff points have come at Pepsi Center, and his two markers on Tuesday come after he posted a league-high 67 points (27 goals and 40 assists) in 39 home contests during the regular season.
"I think he thrives on the energy in the building," head coach Jared Bednar said of MacKinnon. "I think he gets up for it. He is just so explosive at home. He's dangerous every time he touches the puck at home, and he's focused."
MacKinnon also finished with seven shots, which set a postseason career high, while his second tally ended up as the game-winner, the second of his playoff career and his first since scoring in overtime in Game 5 of the Avs' first-round set with the Minnesota Wild on April 26, 2014.

GETTING ON THE BOARD
A pair of Avalanche defensemen earned their first career playoff points with assists on Monday.
Patrik Nemeth fired a shot that was redirected in by Gabriel Bourque with 6:36 remaining in the first period, and Mark Barberio had a helper on Gabriel Landeskog's empty-net goal with 1:36 left in regulation.
Landeskog finished with a playoff career-high three points (one goal and two assists), while Mikko Rantanen had his first multi-point outing in the NHL postseason with two assists.
GIRARD MISSES SECOND STRAIGHT
After playing in all 68 contests with Colorado and Game 1 of the first-round series, rookie defenseman Samuel Girard missed his second consecutive outings with an upper-body injury.
Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said the 19-year-old is still listed as day-to-day and he's hopeful that the blueliner will return for Game 4 on Wednesday.
"I mean he's grown into a top defender for us. He plays a lot of minutes, especially down the stretch," Bednar said of Girard's absence following morning skate. "I felt like his game is peaking, and he's getting better as the year has gone on. He's a big loss for us, but we got to move on. Other guys have to pick up the slack."
Duncan Siemens was inserted into the lineup for the second straight contest after making his playoff debut on Saturday.