Avalanche win Game 3, push Oilers to brink in Western Final

EDMONTON --J.T. Compher scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period for the Colorado Avalanche, who pushed the Edmonton Oilers to the brink of elimination with a 4-2 win in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Compher gave the Avalanche a 3-2 lead at 12:42. Shortly after exiting the penalty box, he won a battle for the loose puck along the boards against Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard and shot five-hole on Mike Smith from the right circle. Bouchard hit the post seven seconds prior to Compher's goal.
"Shot five-hole and I didn't see it go in," said Compher, who has five goals in the past four games. "I thought it was in his pads the way he was moving. It took me a second to get there and it was nice to see when I finally did see it in the net."

Colorado leads the best-of-7 series 3-0. Game 4 is here Monday.
"I thought it was a competitive hockey game," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "Penalty kill was excellent (5-for-5). Some of the goals that went in against us, one goes in off of our stick, one goes in off a blocked shot and lands on someone's tape, and another one where a player comes out of the box where we just hit the post. So those are tough ones, but our team competed to the very end."
Valeri Nichushkin scored two goals, Devon Toews had two assists, and Pavel Francouz made 27 saves for the Avalanche, who are the No. 1 seed from the Central Division.
"Our team is confident on the road and at home, it doesn't matter," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "We preach, regardless of the venue we're playing and what kind of environment we're playing in, it's still the same details that we need. You have to be a little bit better on the road, obviously, because they're going to get a little bit of juice from the home crowd, and we saw that in the first period tonight."
RELATED: [Complete Avalanche vs. Oilers series coverage]
Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri left with an undisclosed injury after he was hit into the boards by Oilers forward Evander Kane at 1:06 of the first period. Kane was assessed a major penalty for boarding on the play.
"He's out. He'll be out for the series at least, if not longer," Bednar said. "The hit, it's the most dangerous play in hockey. He puts him in headfirst from behind, 8 feet from the boards. I'll leave it at that."
Connor McDavid and Ryan McLeod scored, and Smith made 39 saves for the Oilers, the No. 2 seed from the Pacific Division.

McDavid scored on the first shot of the game to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead 38 seconds into the first period. He came off the bench, took a pass from Zach Hyman, and shot five-hole from the left circle.
"They're a good hockey team, I'm going to keep saying that," McDavid said. "They obviously do a lot of good things defensively and offensively. We're a good team, too, and we have to find a way to score and find a way to defend as well."
Nichushkin tied it 1-1 at 16:12 when his centering pass deflected in off the stick of Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse. He then made it 2-1 at 4:37 of the second period from near the right hash marks after Toews' point shot was blocked in front.
"The first one, I tried to pass it, and the second, I just was going to the net and good bounce for me," Nichushkin said. "We talked about it before the game on Smith, he's not moving well, so I tried to shoot it as fast as possible."

McLeod tied it 2-2 at 7:34 of the third period. He skated the length of the ice and scored glove side with a wrist shot from just inside the blue line.
Francouz kept the game tied when he made an outstanding glove save on McDavid at 11:43 during an Edmonton power play.
"That's a big stop at a key point in the game," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "They're dangerous on the power play. I thought we've done a pretty good job containing them to the outside for the most part, and that play in particular, it's a broken play from up top. [Tyson] Barrie breaks his stick and it kind of bounces off [Erik Johnson] and goes out to McDavid and lands right on his tape. 'Frankie's' quick and got over there and made a great stop on it."

After Compher put the Avalanche in front, Mikko Rantanen shot into an empty net at 19:30 for the 4-2 final.
"It obviously stings to go down 3-0, but saying that, it's not over until you lose four," Smith said. "We've got to come back in Game 4 and try and win one game and move on from there. Obviously, the desperation level has to be at an all-time high in order to win at this time of the year."