Bednar Sees Clear Fix for Avs After Game 3 Loss

It wasn't the best game the Colorado Avalanche had played in quite some time, but the team fought its way through 60-plus minutes in Game 2 and picked up the win in overtime.
That wasn't the case in Game 3 against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena. Though the Avs were leading 2-1 in the third period, the Golden Knights scored twice in a matter of 45 seconds and won 3-2 to cut Colorado's advantage to 2-1 in the best-of-seven Round 2 series in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.
For Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar, a lot of the same issues his team had in the last two regulation periods of Wednesday's extra-time win continued as the series shifted to Las Vegas.

"You have to find ways to win. It isn't always pretty, it's not going to be, especially when you're a couple of the top teams in the league," Bednar said. "You're not going to go out and dominate a team, or you shouldn't, OK. But tonight they did, and in the last 40 minutes the other night they did, so it's too long now. It's too long."
Bednar said there was no use in discussing the turning points in Game 3 when in his mind the difference came down to one thing.
"For five periods straight now they've been far more competitive than we have, and to dissect the game any further than that is a waste of time. It's a waste of time," Bednar said. "I look at that game, and I look at us going in the offensive zone and watching their guys close it down. I look at them coming in our offensive zone, we didn't close any plays down. If we won the race, they came out with the puck, and 50 percent of the time or more [when] they won the race, they came up with the puck. I think that we're kidding ourselves if that is the competitiveness we need to be beat the team that tied us for first in the league.
"We had a good night, caught them on an off night in Game 1. And we gave them life in Game 2, and we were able to come up with a win due to special teams and our goalie. We're going to have to compete way harder than that in order to beat them."

Vegas outshot Colorado 14-3 in the first period and finished with a 43-20 margin at the final horn. Still, the Avs had the lead in the final six minutes with goals from Carl Soderberg in the second stanza and Mikko Rantanen on the power play at 5:04 of the third and another strong night in net from Philipp Grubauer.
The Avalanche was expecting a push from the Golden Knights, and the squad did just that while playing in front of 17,504 of its own fans. Vegas outshot Colorado 19-8 in the third period, continued to create scoring chances and finally broke through with two markers to take the advantage on the scoreboard in less than a minute's time.
"We knew they were going to come in the last 10 minutes, and that is what they did," Rantanen said. "I think just a couple mistakes we made, and that's going to cost you against a good team like Vegas. There is no moment you can fall asleep. You know, Grubi played amazing again, but we can't rely on him making 50 saves every night."
While the second-round matchup has tightened up, the Avalanche still owns the edge in the best-of-seven set heading into Game 4 on Sunday at T-Mobile Arena.
But Bednar and Avs know they need a better performance over the weekend if they want to stay ahead of the Knights when the series returns to Denver for Game 5 on Tuesday.
"The adjustment for us now is to make sure we outwork our opponent and we execute," Bednar said. "If we do that then we give ourselves a good chance to win the hockey game. They're a competitive group, and now we have to crank that up because that's not close."

MIKKO KEEPS GOING

With his third period goal on the power play, Mikko Rantanen scored for the fourth straight game and now has points in all seven playoff games this year, the longest stretch by an NHL player.
The forward also stretched his point streak in the postseason to 17 consecutive contests dating back to last year, which had already set a new franchise record for the longest stretch that spans multiple playoff years. It's the longest streak by an NHL player including multiple postseasons since Al MacInnis had a 19-game run with the Calgary Flames from 1989 to 1990.

Rantanen, who was the overtime hero in Game 2, nearly recorded the tying marker on Friday as he shot while wide open at the right circle with 44.1 seconds left, but Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was able to get his right pad on top of the puck as it was sliding on the ice.
"Landy make a good pass to me and I just tried to get it off quick and surprise Fleury, but it got stuck in his pads. Obviously, a bummer," Rantanen said.
The right wing now has four goals and seven assists in this postseason and 50 points (17 goals, 33 assists) in 40 career playoff games. The only active players to hit the half-century mark in fewer games are the Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby and his linemate Nathan MacKinnon, all of whom did so in 37 contests.

FOURTH LINE CHANGE

The Avalanche swapped out the wingers on the Pierre-Edouard Bellemere-centered fourth line, replacing rookies Alex Newhook and Sampo Ranta with Kiefer Sherwood and Carl Soderberg.
The new-look combo scored Colorado's first goal of the game to tie the outing at 1-1, as Bellemare fired a shot off a pass from Sherwood and Soderberg buried the puck into the net after it rebounded off goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. It was Soderberg's first goal with the Avs since being acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks on April 12 at the Trade Deadline and his third tally in his postseason career--also his first in Colorado.

For Sherwood, he was playing in his first career game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He appeared in 16 contests during the regular season for the Avs after signing as a free agent last offseason.
"We need all of our lines to contribute, and I would like to see us as a fourth line get some O-zone possession time, have a strong forecheck, making sure we are playing on the right half of the rink," said head coach Jared Bednar after morning skate on Friday. "We didn't do that enough in Game 2."
Newhook played in each of the first six games of Colorado's playoffs after also appearing in the last six outings of the regular season. Ranta made his NHL debut in Game 1 versus Vegas on Sunday.

O'CONNOR PROGRESSING

Logan O'Connor joined the Avs for morning skate at T-Mobile Arena on Friday as he continues his recovery after having surgery due to a lower-body injury. He had previously been skating on his own and with the team's Black Aces.
Head coach Jared Bednar has said that O'Connor is ahead of schedule, but he noted on Friday he didn't have an exact timetable for when the forward could return.
"He is still not ready to go even though he's now joined the team skates, so we're going to work on him here and hopefully get him ready to go as soon as possible," Bednar said. "I think he's a guy with his speed and tenacity on pucks that can help us. We know he's had a great regular season for us, but he's just not ready to go as of yet."
O'Connor was injured on March 31 versus the Arizona Coyotes, missing the final 21 contests of the regular season. He had three goals and two assists in 22 contests prior to getting hurt.

MORE POSTGAME NOTES

The Avalanche went 1-for-2 on the power play and has scored a power-play goal in four straight games and in six of its seven postseason contests. Colorado is 11-for-25 (44 percent) with the man advantage in the playoffs, tops in the league.
Colorado is 14-7 all-time when winning two of the first three games of a best-of-seven playoff series and 13-5 since moving to Denver.
Carl Soderberg (35 years, 235 days) became the oldest player to score a playoff goal for the Avalanche since Joe Sakic (38 years, 282 days) in Game 3 of the 2008 Western Conference Quarterfinals.
Cale Makar recorded an assist and now has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in the playoffs, tops among the team defensemen and second among all rear guards in the NHL.