Avalanche Drop 5-1 Loss at Bruins

The Colorado Avalanche suffered a 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday night at TD Garden as the Avalanche continued their four-game road trip. The Avalanche are now 13-8-1 on the season.

Andrew Cogliano scored the sole goal for the Avalanche. In net, Pavel Francouz made 35 saves on 40 shots.
For the Bruins, David Pastrnak scored twice including once on the power play, while Trent Frederic scored twice at even strength, while Jake DeBrusk also scored. Charlie McAvoy handed out two assists. In between the pipes, Linus Ullmark made 24 saves on 25 shots.

GAME SUMMARY:

The Avalanche knew it would be a tough matchup heading into the game as Boston is one of the top teams in the league and boasts a deep lineup and the Bruins proved so as they dominated possession and controlled much of the play.
Despite outshooting the Bruins 15-12 in the first period, the Avalanche trailed 2-0 heading into the first intermission.
The first 20 minutes of play was physical - as Boston outhit Colorado 13-8 - and featured a heavy-weight tilt between Andreas Englund and Nick Foligno, but Boston capitalized on a power-play goal from Pastrnak and a late goal on a d-zone breakdown from Frederic.
Boston was awarded its second power play of the opening frame at 13:20 as Dryden Hunt was called for tripping. The Bruins' second-ranked power play in the league (behind Colorado) wasted no time in securing the game's icebreaker. Charlie McAvoy fed a high-to-low pass to Brad Marchad in the right faceoff circle where the right winger threaded a cross-slot pass to Pastrnak at his office in the opposing faceoff circle. The Czech winger unleashed a blistering one timer over the glove of Francouz at 13:49.
After Colorado was unable to convert on a late power play awarded at 15:24 following the fight between Englund and Foligno, the Bruins doubled their lead with just 1:09 left in the first frame. McAvoy exchanged a quick give and go with Pavel Zacha, who returned the puck to the d-man in the slot. Francouz denied McAvoy's initial shot, but Frederic swooped in on the doorstep to put away the rebound at 18:51.
Boston furthered its lead in the second period to 3-0 with another tally from Pastrnak - this time on a breakaway - as they also held dominated in shots 15-4 and hits 8-3.
The Avalanche took the ice in the middle frame, short a forward as it was announced that winger Artturi Lehkonen suffered an upper-body injury and would not be returning.
Boston started the period off strong and had seemingly extended their lead early at 3:14 as Francouz fumbled a shot from distance between his pads as Bruins winger Jake DeBrusk skated into the crease and tucked the puck past the goal line. But upon review from the officials, the goal was disallowed due to goaltender interference.
The Bruins didn't let up and extended their lead 3-0 for good at 4:48 as David Krejci sprung Pastrnak for a breakaway. Pastrnak skated in and beat his fellow Czech countryman as he roofed the puck over Francouz to score his second strike of the night and eighth goals in his last six games.
The Avalanche generated a promising chance midway through the period on a passing sequence between Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and J.T. Compher, but Ullmark sprawled out to deny Compher on the goal line.
Boston could have furthered its lead with three minutes left in the frame, as Tomas Nosek was awarded a penalty shot, but Francouz smothered the puck at the post to keep the Avalanche's deficit just at 3-0 heading into the final 20 minutes.
The Avalanche robbed Ullmark of the shutout in the final period, but Boston scored twice in the span of 10 seconds late in the period to extend their lead 5-1.

Colorado secured its lone goal as they forced a turnover in Boston's zone. A loose puck in the slot deflected off a Boston skater and landed in the low slot, where Cogliano whacked the puck past Ullmark to trim Colorado's deficit down 3-1 at 6:32.
Frederic buried his second goal off a feed from Taylor Hall to further Boston's lead 4-1 at 15:32. On the next shift after the center-ice faceoff, DeBrusk extended the Bruins' lead 5-1 just 10 seconds after Frederic's second strike, the winger put in a rebound off a Derek Forbort shot at 15:42.

NOTEWORTHY:

• Cogliano tallied his fourth goal of the season and now has seven points (4G, 3A).
• Cale Makar skated in his 200th-career game. In that span, the 24-year-old has compiled 203 points, which are the most by a defenseman through 200 games in NHL history, eclipsing Sergei Zubov (195 points). Among defensemen who appeared in at least 200 games, only Makar (1.02), Bobby Orr (1.39), Paul Coffey (1.09) averaged a point-per-game.
• Francouz made his 7th start of the season, while his record dropped to 2-5-0.
• Andreas Englund returned to the lineup as Josh Manson was sidelined (week-to-week) after suffering an abdominal injury against Buffalo. Englund totaled 12:42 of ice time, finished the game plus-one, threw two hits, and blocked one shot.
• Lehkonen suffered an upper-body injury and did not return to the game after the first period where he skated 5:05 and fired one shot on net.
• Anton Blidh returned to Boston after spending the first six years of his career in the Bruins organization.
• Colorado finished the game 0-for-3 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.
• Bowen Byram, Evan Rodrigues (lower-body injuries) and Martin Kaut were scratches for Colorado.

NEXT GAME:

The Avalanche continue their road trip as they travel to Philadelphia for a matchup on Monday night. The puck drops between the Avs and Flyers at 5 p.m. MT.