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.