Avalanche's Comeback Bid Falls Short in 5-4 Loss to Panthers

The Colorado Avalanche attempted a late comeback bid, but ultimately fell short dropping a 5-4 result to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night at Ball Arena. Colorado is now 20-16-3 on the season.

For the Avalanche, Andrew Cogliano, Mikko Rantanen (1G, 1A), Nathan MacKinnon and J.T. Compher (1G, 1A) scored. Kurtis MacDermid handed out two assists. In net, Alexandar Georgiev turned aside 31 of the 36 shots that he faced.
For Florida, Matthew Tkachuk scored twice - once at even-strength and once on the power play which served as the late game-winner - while Aleksander Barkov (1G, 2A) and Brandon Montour (1G, 1A) scored at even strength and Sam Bennett (1G, 1A) added a power-play strike. Between the pipes, Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves on 31 shots.

GAME SUMMARY:

As of late, the Avalanche have been hindered by injuries and noted not executing a full 60-minute effort as a common thread that has cost them precious points. Against Florida, the Avalanche dropped to a 3-1 and subsequent 4-1 deficit after 40 minutes of play and lost the special teams battle as they were 0-for-3 on the power play and 0-for-2 on the penalty kill. They attempted a late comeback with a three-goal push in the third period, but the effort wasn't enough as the Panthers sealed the win with less than five minutes left in the game.
Despite starting the period with a strong effort, the Avalanche dug themselves into a 3-1 hole come the first intermission as the Panthers capitalized with two goals on four shots in the span of 2:45 minutes and added a power-play strike on their ninth shot of the game. Fortunately, the Avalanche managed to trim their deficit down 3-1 as Cogliano put them on the board with 54 seconds left in the period.
Barkov drew the game's icebreaker at 9:07. The play unfolded as his linemate, Anton Lundell chased down a puck that bounced off the end boards and then centered it to the net front. There, Barkov took the puck, dragged the puck across the crease as Georgiev came out of his crease and Barkov popped the puck from his backhand on the backdoor past the Avalanche netminder to give Panthers 1-0 lead.
Florida doubled its lead 2:45 minutes later as they capitalized on a rush play. Carter Verhaeghe took the puck into the left faceoff circle before dropping it back to the top of the circle for Montour, who wired his shot past Georgiev's glove at 11:52.
The Avalanche didn't put themselves in a position for success as they were then on the penalty kill at 12:38 as Artturi Lehkonen hooked Aaron Ekblad. Florida's power play capitalized on a turnover as Girard misplayed a puck below the left faceoff circle. Reinhart sent the loose puck to the backdoor as Bennett tapped it in to extend the Panthers' lead to 3-0 at 13:47.
Colorado added a late goal with less than a minute left in the period as Kurtis MacDermid put a pass from Cale Makar on net. At the net front, Cogliano redirected the puck past Bobrovsky at 19:06.

The Panthers put the pressure on in the second period as they outshot the Avalanche 17-4 and restored their three-goal lead with a goal with just 52 seconds left in the middle frame.
Colorado's power play was 0-for-2 in the second period - which featured a heavy-weight tilt between MacDermid and Givani Smith at the midway mark - and 0-for-3 after 40 minutes of play.
Florida extended its lead 3-1 at 19:08. Barkov circled around the net and turned and centered a pass to the net front. The feed sailed past Devon Toews and Makar as the puck hit of Tkachuk's skate and he shot it past Georgiev.
Despite falling down to a three-goal deficit, the Avalanche showcased their fiery, 'No quit' mentality as they scored two goals in the span of 20 seconds from Rantanen and MacKinnon to trim Florida's lead down 4-3.
The Avalanche scored their first goal of the 20-second blitz at 6:29 as Rantanen collected a pass from Brad Hunt at the net front below the left faceoff circle. The Finnish winger took the puck, spun around the net all the way to the other side and tucked the puck past Bobrovksy.

Before the in-arena announcer could even finish announcing Rantanen's strike, the Avalanche lit the lamp again on a tremendous effort from MacKinnon. The centerman picked up a pass in the neutral zone from Rantanen, accelerated up ice, skated down the right wall and into the right faceoff circle where he fired a sizzling sharp-angle shot that snuck past Bobrovsky's left arm to make it a one-goal game at 6:49.

With just under nine minutes left in the third period, the Avalanche seemingly tied the game up at 11:11 with a four-on-four goal from Lehkonen as Compher and Montour were both assessed with unsportsmanlike conduct at 9:41. Evan Rodrigues fired a shot on net and Bobrovsky kicked out the puck to the slot where Lehkonen put away the rebound, but the goal was disallowed for offsides prior to the play entering the zone.
That didn't slow the Avalanche.
The team kept pushing and eventually equalized the score at 12:07. MacDermid fired a point shot on net. Compher - who had just exited the box - was in the slot and tried to get out of the way of the shot, but instead it hit off his side and dropped down to his right. Compher turned and fired a high shot just below the bar on net that zipped past traffic and tied the score 4-4 for Colorado as Ball Arena erupted in cheers from the jam-packed crowd.

At 14:40, Rantanen was sent to the box for interference and the Panthers capitalized on their second power-play of the night at 16:30 to seal the 5-4 victory.
On Florida's power play and eventual game-winning goal, Tkachuk put away his second strike of the game. Florida's All-Star Weekend nod, collected a pass at the near post, turned and tried to jam the puck past Georgiev, who stood tall. The puck squeaked out in the crease and deflected off Rodrigues' skate and into the net to restore the lead and two points to the Panthers.

THEY SAID IT:

"At this point, we can't be taking any moral victories. It's not good enough. You can't really take away many positives when you go down 4-1. Yeah, we tried to come back and got close, but you don't put yourself in a position to have success when you turn the puck over that much and then go down 4-1." - Forward Andrew Cogliano
"We didn't play well enough for 40 minutes, it was not good enough… I like what we did, but the message lately has been to play a full-60."- Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar

NOTEWORTHY:

• Cogliano tallied his sixth goal of the season.
• Rantanen (1G, 1A) recorded his team leading 27th goal of the season and third goal in his last four games.
• MacKinnon buried his 11th goal of the season and second goal in as many games.
• Compher (1G, 1A) scored his goal of the season.
• MacDermid recorded his second and third points of the season with two assists.
• Jacob MacDonald missed morning skate as he and his wife welcomed their son yesterday. MacDonald played alongside Ben Meyers and Martin Kaut.
• Georgiev made his 30th start of the season and 12th-consecutive start, whilehis record fell to 16-11-3.
• Colorado finished the game 0-for-3 on the power play and 0-for-2 on the penalty kill.
• Andreas Englund, Denis Malgin, and Valeri Nichushkin were scratches for the Avalanche.

NEXT GAME:

The Avalanche travel to Chicago for a Central Division matchup on Thursday night along with the Dads and Mentors of each respective player and staff member as part of an annual NHL tradition. The puck drops between the Avs and Blackhawks at 6:30 p.m. MT.