Colorado Displayed Defensive Focus In Series Opener with Arizona

The Colorado Avalanche might be known around the National Hockey League for its high-powered offense, but it showed its defensive prowess in the first game of its Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Arizona Coyotes.

The Avs only allowed 14 shots on goal, setting a new franchise playoff record, in their 3-0 victory over the Coyotes in Game 1 on Wednesday afternoon.

"I just think it's hard work and commitment. I believe our guys know what we are trying to do on the defensive side of it from a tactical standpoint, from a structural standpoint and some nights we are better than others," said head coach Jared Bednar. "It is about having your legs and using your legs to check and putting teams under pressure on the offensive side of it and on the defensive side of it. When we are on our toes and playing that way on the defensive side then we are a good-checking team, and it is something that we have been striving to get better at for the last couple years and I feel like we have done that. Now, it is just keep trying to get better here through the playoffs.

"We don't want to be a team that is just run and gun and rely on our goalie. We have to play the right way on both sides of the puck, which is one of the reasons why I liked our game last night because we didn't start cheating the offense as the game could start to get frustrating. We just stuck with it and had a belief that we could pull through and we were able to last night, hopefully that can continue throughout the series."

Colorado finished the regular season tied for third among all teams in goals scored (236) and ranked fourth in goals-per-game (3.37). On defense, the Avs finished tied for fifth in the NHL with 190 goals-against and ranked sixth in goals-against average (2.71). The team headed to the playoffs with a plus-46 goal differential, the best in the Western Conference and third in the NHL.

Through four contests this postseason, the Avalanche has only allowed five goals, the fewest among Western Conference teams. The Avs have also earned two shutout wins, joining the Columbus Blue Jackets as the only clubs in the 2020 playoffs to record two clean slates.

Colorado was in control for much of the contest on Wednesday and finished the game with a 40-14 edge in shots on goal. However, the Avs didn't find the back of the net until Nazm Kadri scored on the team's 33rd shot of the game.

In a way, Kadri's second tally of the postseason opened the flood gates as J.T. Compher tallied 10 seconds later and Mikko Rantanen extended the lead to 3-0 shortly after. All three goals came in a 1:23 span, the third fastest three markers in franchise playoff history.

"I think the biggest thing on our end is patience and maturity and not getting frustrated. Those three things, it never came into play last night," said veteran forward Matt Calvert. "There was zero frustration. We just kept reiterating between every period we knew they were going to game plan like this. We know they pack it in. We certainly watched the [Arizona versus] Nashville series and [the Predators] outshot them quite a bit, but the big thing is getting traffic, battling to those hard areas and winning those battles against their D-men as a forward. We kept going at them and finally we broke them in the third period there, and I think that's why you see their let down and us score three goals in a minute and a half there."

PLAYOFF BACK-TO-BACK AHEAD

Game 2 and 3 of the series will take place on Friday and Saturday, Colorado's first back-to-back set in the playoffs since Games 3-4 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals on April 14-15, 2008 versus the Minnesota Wild.

The Avs played 12 back-to-back games this season, finishing 9-3-0 in the first contest and 6-5-1 in the second. Colorado swept half (six) of those sets, matching a franchise record for the most back-to-back sweeps (1985-86 and 2000-01).

The Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques franchise has played 19 total back-to-back sets in the playoffs and is 8-11 in the first contest and 10-9 in the second when playing on consecutive days.

"You know what, I am excited for it," Calvert said of playing two outings in two days during the toughest time of the year. "I was really excited to get the real series started. There has been so much down time as I touched on before and after last night you feel like you earned this day off, and its nice because if you get some momentum going and you got a back-to-back game, you want to keep that going, you don't want the long break. I think without the travel, we literally walk across the bridge to our hotel rooms. It's just such a great setup here and you don't get tired from other factors, I don't think a back-to-back is going to be an issue for us."

Colorado won both contests in three consecutive sets back-to-backs in February, tying a franchise record for consecutive sweeps (fifth time, last: October 2009).

Although Bednar did not give any details about what his lineup might be in the Game 2 matchup, he did note on Thursday that all of the Avalanche's 31 players in Edmonton should be available to him.

"Everyone is good. Everyone should be available for tomorrow, just your regular bumps and bruises," said the Colorado bench boss. "We had some guys block a couple shots here and there. As far as I know nothing has popped up yet this morning, last night we were good after the game."