Avs Defeat Knights In Electric Game

The atmosphere inside Pepsi Center was electric. The Colorado Avalanche players felt it, and they want more of it.
In a game that might be a prelude of things to come if the Avalanche can secure a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Colorado matched the Vegas Golden Knights' speed and tempo and earned a 2-1 shootout victory on Saturday afternoon. It was the first half of a home-and-home set that concludes Monday in Las Vegas.
"It's unbelievable. Me and Mikko just said it [after the game]," Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog recalled. "He said, 'I can't believe how loud it was out there,' and I just said, 'Wait to the playoffs. That is going to be even louder.'"

The second meeting of the season between the Avalanche and Golden Knights had a playoff-type energy to it, both on the ice and in the crowd.
Colorado's Carl Soderberg and Vegas' Jonathan Marchessault scored on two near-perfect shots, while the two starting goaltenders dueled it out in their respective ends. Semyon Varlamov made 39 saves through overtime for the Avs, while the Knights' Marc-Andre Fleury denied 29 shots in 65 minutes of play.
In the shootout, Varlamov stopped all three shooters he faced while Fleury saved the first two pucks his way but couldn't deny the last one from Gabriel Landeskog's wrist shot. That ended the contest and ignited a celebration for the sold-out crowd of 18,042 in attendance.
"That was a good hockey game," said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar to open his postgame news conference. "That was a fun hockey game. I thought both teams played really well. Back and forth, a little bit of everything. Goalies were really good. It was hard to create chances, but the game had a really good pace to it. It was tight checking. It was a fun hockey game. I thought our fans were awesome tonight. Building was engaged, both teams' players were engaged, really fun game."

The Avalanche now has 90 points for the first time since the 2014-15 campaign (also 90 points) and 26 home wins on the year, tied for the third-most in franchise history and two away from tying the record of 28 set in 2000-01 season. Colorado has three more regular season games at Pepsi Center.
The win also moved the Avs back into the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference. If the season ended on Saturday, Colorado would face Vegas in the opening round of the postseason. The expansion Golden Knights are in first place in the Pacific Division with a 47-21-7 record and 101 points.
That could be a heck of a series, but the Avalanche is not looking that far ahead right now. The squad still need to clinch a playoff berth and have the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars close behind them in the standings.
"That would be a blast, but we're not going to get ahead of ourselves," said Landeskog of a possible Colorado-Vegas matchup. "We're not going to start looking ahead. We know we have seven games left to make sure that we polish up things and ultimately get wins and get points because we're going to need all of them at this point. We're going to stay within the process like we talked about all season long."

Staying focused and even-keel is especially important this time of the year for the Avalanche, which is the youngest team in the NHL with an average age of 25.4.
Colorado has nine rookies on its active roster and six played on Saturday. Playing in important contests late in the year, like the one versus Vegas, will only benefit the club down the stretch.
"It's a good experience for us," Landeskog said. "With a young group like this, we need to learn from these types of games and how to play in these games."

VARLY, VARLY

Goalie Semyon Varlamov was good early but great late against the offensively-gifted Golden Knights. Of his 39 saves, 12 came in the third period and seven in overtime.
During the best-of-three shootout, Varlamov was perfect, though it was far from easy.
"Today, I had no idea what the players were going to do against me us because usually you learn from the past," the Avs netminder said. "You kind of know the players, what they are going to do, their moves, but today I had no idea. So I just tried to stay patient."
Varlamov improved to 108-for-143 in his career in the NHL tiebreaker, and his .755 save percentage is the best-ever for goalies who have faced 100 or more shootout attempts.

ALT MAKES DEBUT

Mark Alt has been on the Avalanche roster for nearly a month and the defenseman finally made his debut with his new club on Saturday.
The defenseman played 10:58 and finished with two hits and two blocked shots.
"I felt it went really well," Alt told ColoradoAvalanche.com of his first game with the club. "It took a little adjustment to get back into the pace of the game, but after a few shifts I felt really comfortable. It's helped to play with guys like [Erik Johnson], and kind of settle me down and get me back into the flow of things."

The defenseman was claimed on waivers on Feb. 26 from the Philadelphia Flyers and has been practicing with the club for the last four weeks. With the Avs down a few key forwards, head coach Jared Bednar decided to ice a lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen, and Alt was the extra blueliner.
"Alt has been looking real good at practice. I like the way he moves the puck, good details, plays with pace," said Bednar. "And we brought him in, I want to make sure we aren't missing something there. He played a really good game for us tonight. He's a right-handed shot. He can get his shot through to the net. He moved the puck efficiently, defended hard, smart player, kind of what we saw in practice. I want to give him a crack and see if he can step in and help our team win."
It was Alt's ninth game of the season and 10th of his career. The last contest he played in was Dec. 7 against the Vancouver Canucks while a member of the Flyers.
"It was a tough situation coming into it but talking with the coaches and staff that I knew that was it, just had to be patient, wait for my time, stay in shape," he said. "That was really all I could focus on, and that's what I did."

INJURY UPDATES

out several of its players for Saturday's afternoon game, with forwards Sven Andrighetto and Colin Wilson and goaltender Jonathan Bernier unable to participate.
The club announced prior to puck drop that Bernier wouldn't be able to backup starter Semyon Varlamov as he had an infection from a cut, and that it had recalled Spencer Martin from the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League.
Andrighetto and Wilson both missed the contest due to lower-body injuries.
"I don't have a time frame on them," Bednar said of the two forwards. "I guess they are basically day-to-day. We'll just see how they feel on a daily basis and try to get them back on the ice and see if they can play or not."
As for Bernier, Bednar said, "he wasn't an option for us tonight, so we recalled Martin. I don't have a timeframe on him either."