Avalanche Excited For Home Support

The atmosphere at Bridgestone Arena was palpable in the first two games of the Colorado Avalanche's opening-round series of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and now the club looks to use the same home-ice advantage the Nashville Predators enjoyed to its own benefit.
The best-of-seven series shifts to Pepsi Center for the next two contests, with the Avs getting the support of their own fans for the first time this postseason.
"Everyone is excited for it, obviously," said defenseman David Warsofsky of returning home for Game 3. "We got to see what their arena was like, and I think Pepsi Center is going to be just as loud. Hopefully we can use that to our advantage."

Colorado is aiming to hold serve in the next two games after Nashville picked up 5-2 and 5-4 victories on its home ice on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
The Predators' faithful didn't disappoint in the two outings. They were loud, rowdy and cladded in bright yellow, and the Avalanche took notice.
"Coming out for warmup for the first game there and seeing the stands packed was pretty cool. Nashville does a good job of rallying around their team, and I know Denver will do a great job and do the same for us," said rookie Tyson Jost. "I know we're really excited and these two games are going to be huge."

The Avalanche expects the same type of support, if not more, than what the Preds received for Game 3 on Monday. The Pepsi Center had raucous crowds late in the season, as nearly every contest was a must-win with Colorado fighting for a playoff berth.
"When we've played in this building in front of big crowds, we've been energized and have been on our toes, being the aggressors. We certainly need to continue doing that," said Avs head coach Jared Bednar after the team's optional practice on Sunday. "I think our guys are hungry to get back here. You know, we'll have some matchup advantages that we want to play with as much as we possibly can, just like they did in their building."
Maybe no game saw the Pepsi Center advantage on full display more than the regular-season finale on April 7 against the St. Louis Blues. The Avalanche needed a win in the contest to secure its first postseason berth since 2014 and fed off the fans' excitement to earn the 5-2 victory.
That outing was likely a precursor of things to come.
"The crowd has done a great job of rallying around our team," Jost said. "Looking back at that St. Louis game, the last regular-season game at home, that was like a playoff game and the crowd did such a great job of energizing us and we really fed off all the emotions that were felt in the rink. We know it's going to be the same for these next two games at home."

The Avalanche is coming off one of its best home campaigns ever during the regular season. The team's 28 victories at Pepsi Center were tied with the 2000-01 Stanley Cup championship squad for the most in franchise history, and its 58 points earned (28-11-2) on home ice were tied for the ninth most in the league during the year.
Colorado also had the eighth-best power play (tied-25 percent) and the top-ranked penalty kill (91.7 percent) at home during the season and scored 35 more goals overall (145-110).
"It's a big advantage for us, we know we play good at home," Rantanen said. "We aren't supposed to be here, that's what everybody believed. I think when we were in this locker room we believed that we had a chance to get in, and we did. So we just have to go and enjoy this and play like we used to play at home. Play energetic and have a good start to the game."
While the Avalanche dropped the first two contests of the series, the team did a lot of good things that made it confident going into the home portion of the schedule.
Bednar said the mistakes Colorado made are easily correctable, and the Predators took advantage of them to post back-to-back, come-from-behind wins. The Avs scored first in each contest.
"I would say we're hungry to win this game," Bednar said. "We want to perform well in front of our fans and city, No. 1. No. 2, it puts us right back into the series because I think our guys are confident that if we clean up a couple of the mistakes we made in Games 1 and 2, we'll go back in there and win. Now it's on us to make sure we're at our best on home ice and make sure we crawl back into this series."