Colorado Had Its Chances In Game 1

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--The game was there for the Colorado Avalanche to take, but instead it was the Nashville Predators that took advantage of the opening contest of the teams' Stanley Cup Playoff series.
Filip Forsberg scored two of the Predators' three goals in the third period--the other was via an empty net--and grabbed Game 1 by a 5-2 score on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena.
"I thought we did some real good things the first two periods," said Avalanche forward Blake Comeau. "The third period we gave up some odd-man rushes and got away from our game a little bit."
Both teams traded chances throughout the contest, but the Predators capitalized on the bounces that went their way.

Things turned in their favor at 6:08 of the third period when Forsberg scored on a deflection in front of Avs goaltender Jonathan Bernier. Roman Josi's outside shot was going wide, but Forsberg was able to get enough of his stick on the puck to redirect it the other way and into the cage. He added his second of the night six minutes later after chasing down a puck in the Colorado slot.
"I thought we really gave ourselves the chance to have the lead for parts of that game," said Avs defenseman Tyson Barrie. "Obviously, that one goes off Forsberg backdoor, that's a tough one. There isn't much you can do about that, and these guys are good when they have the lead in the third period."
The Avalanche held a 2-1 lead early in the second period and finished with 27 shots on goal. The team had three power plays in the game.
"I think we had some good chances and had a lot of speed through the middle," Comeau said. "I thought a couple inches here and there, we had some more odd-man rushes. It just seemed that the pucks were bouncing a little bit away from us. We did some good things, and there are things that we need to clean up."
The final score was a bit deceiving as both Colorado head coach Jared Bednar and his players liked large portions of the club's game.
"It told me something that I already knew. We have a lot of heart, and I think we played hard today," Bednar said. "We played really hard today. I think we had a real good start coming in here. They had a couple plays and times in the game where they pushed, and I felt that we pushed back. We missed on a couple of our real good opportunities. They found a way to score a couple, lucky bounces."
With the second game of the series set for 1 p.m. MT on Saturday, Friday's practice will be the Avs' only chance to do on-ice work before the matinee.
It doesn't appear that there will be any major changes for Colorado, just minor stuff to clean up its game.
"I felt like we did enough to almost earn a better result, but now we're going to have to dig even harder and make sure we do earn a better result," Bednar said. "We're capable. We played hard. It was a good game by our group. It could have gone the other way, but it didn't so we have to find a way to break this cycle and make sure we get the win here in Game 2."

WELCOME TO THE PLAYOFFS

Eight Avalanche players made their Stanley Cup Playoff debuts on Thursday night, including four rookies.
Sven Andrighetto, J.T. Compher, Samuel Girard, Tyson Jost, Alexander Kerfoot, Mikko Rantanen, David Warsofsky and Nikita Zadorov all played in their first postseason contest in the NHL.
"It's a good way to learn, being in these high pressure, high intensity games," said Comeau, a veteran of 11 career playoff outings. "Not a ton of playoff experience, but sometimes that is a good thing. You're playing free and you're playing with excitement and a lot of adrenaline. We just got to make sure that we harness it the right way in the second game."
Colorado entered the day with only half of its 28-man active roster having played a game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

GETTING MARKERS

Defenseman Nikita Zadorov and Blake Comeau scored the Avalanche's goals in Game 1. Zadorov opened the night's tallies with a wrist shot from the high right circle, and Comeau gave Colorado a 2-1 lead with a tip in the slot off a Carl Soderberg shot.
Zadorov's first career playoff tally came after he set a career high with seven markers during the regular season. Mikko Rantanen assisted on the score to earn his first playoff point.
Comeau's goal was his second of his postseason career, and his first since scoring while a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 1 of the first-round series versus the New York Rangers in 2015.