Avalanche Continues to Create Scoring Opportunities vs. Coyotes

Despite the Game 3 loss, the Colorado Avalanche had no trouble producing scoring chances.

Colorado fell 4-2 to the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday but outshot the Yotes 51-23. The Avs took 20 shots in the first period alone, one short of tying the franchise record for a single period in a playoff game (21; April 15, 2019 vs. Calgary Flames, May 21, 2000 vs. Dallas Stars).

The Avs also had more than double the shot attempts in the third contest of the best-of-seven set, totaling 92 total attempts to Arizona's 39. Colorado spent plenty of time in the offensive zone in the contest as it outshot the Coyotes 46-14 in the final 53 minutes of play. Trailing in the third period, the Avalanche continued to pressure and had a 15-6 edge in shots, but Mikko Rantanen's in the final minute of play was the only one that was able to find the back of the net.

"You know we've had our moments, but that was probably the best night we've had in the O-zone of the series," said head coach Jared Bednar. "Not just spending time, but I'm guessing also creating opportunities and using our legs and, you know, taking space when it's available, pretty good execution tonight."

Colorado's shots ran into Arizona goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who saved 49-of-51 and has earned a .933 save percentage through the first three games. The netminder tied his career high for saves, a mark set just last week in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers against the Nashville Predators (49-of-52, Aug. 7, 2020). He's stopped at least 37 pucks in two of the three matchups so far against the Avalanche.

In addition to Kuemper's play in the crease, his teammates in front of him blocked 27 shots in Game 3--the highest total for Arizona this year in both the playoffs and regular season--to help prevent the Avs from scoring.

Overall, the Avs have outshot the Coyotes 119-69 in the first three outings of Round 1. Colorado owns a 2-1 lead in the series and has been strong offensively in each game, even in Saturday's loss, and has an 8-6 edge in goals.

Nearly every Avalanche skater that has dressed in the series has recorded at least one shot on goal. In Game 1, 16 of the 18 Colorado skaters put at least one puck on the net, and the club is proving that any member of the team can be dangerous with markers coming from highlight-reel wrister to greasy ones in the paint.

Nazem Kadri leads the Avs so far in the series with 11 shots on goal, while Nathan MacKinnon, Erik Johnson and Cale Makar are tied for second with 10 shots apiece. Of the 18 Avalanche members who have recorded a shot on net, 14 of them have notched five or more in the first round.

Although Colorado didn't grab the win on Saturday, the Avs are doing everything right to put themselves in the best position to win. Bednar said it's now time for the players to stay focused on the process when facing a hot goalie in Kuemper.

"I mean my message is keep doing what you're doing," Bednar said of the offense after Game 3. "The key is you can't just keep doing what you're doing on the offensive side of it and then have a mental breakdown and give up an easy goal against. Hey, Arizona has earned enough scoring chances on their own, we don't have to give them easy goals. If you look at the two goals tonight, that's on us. That's not on them, that's on us. It's a full-possession turnover to a goal against. It's a bunch of room in front of us so we turn it over, bad line change, odd-man rush against, goal against. It's simple, we've got to finish the job.

"For me, the offensive side of it, if you stick with it, you'll find a way. There is a couple of things that we can do. No. 1, we need to get into [Darcy Kuemper's] eyes a little bit more, keep a guy at the net. We've scored when we've had some traffic in there and we've made it top-bottom in there, and if you do it repeatedly you're going to find a way to score. Am I okay with running into a hot goalie? Yeah, as long as we find ways to win the hockey game."

Colorado isn't taking this loss too hard as it has now applied heavy pressure in the offensive zone in two of the first three games against the Coyotes. The mindset is to now keep grinding away and continue to get pucks to the net for the rest of this series.

"We've just got to stick with it," said Landeskog. "It's as simple as that. We're not going to change too much, we're going to watch the video and see where we can get better and adjust certain things, and just come out and be ready for Game 4."

The Avs will look to keep pushing offensively and break through for more goals in Game 4 on Monday.