Mistakes The Difference In Loss To Flyers

It was a hardworking effort for the Colorado Avalanche, one which almost brought the team success against one of the hottest clubs in the National Hockey League.
Yet, a handful of mistakes was all it took for the Avs to fall 4-3 to the Philadelphia Flyers at Pepsi Center on Wednesday.
"It was a good, hard-fought game, hard-played game by two teams," head coach Jared Bednar said after the loss. "I really liked the way we played. We made one more mistake than they made, and it cost us the game.

"We made four big ones, you know what I mean, and they capitalized on them. I thought we played real hard tonight, real competitive, did a lot of good things. That's how we have to play, just like that. We can't hand them a couple goals, but I thought it was a real hard-fought hockey game."
For two periods, the Avalanche matched the Flyers in all areas of the ice, but it was a 1:46 stretch early in the third that would be Colorado's undoing. Roman Lyubimov and Brayden Schenn each tallied to go ahead 4-2 with a lead that wouldn't be surrendered.
"Going into the third period 2-2 and not coming away with a win and going down two goals there, it's so frustrating," said Matt Duchene, who had two markers in the match. "We had an opportunity to win that hockey game against a really good hockey team. [Calvin Pickard] played outstanding for us, kept us in early when we needed him to. We're frustrated not to get the win."

Philadelphia's goals each came on mistakes that proved costly. First, Rene Bourque had the puck slip off of his stick and go right to Lyubimov, who hammered it home. Then, Schenn managed to slip around the Avalanche's defense and drive the net for the eventual game-winner.
The Avs fought back in the final frame and pushed the contest within one, but the equalizer remained elusive.
"I thought we dominated the last half of the third, but we needed to because we put ourselves in a poor position. It's frustrating," said Duchene. "It's been our downfall all year, the starts to periods. We've blown so many games in the first five minutes or whatever in periods. The first one is a bad bounce. Bourque, the guy has a good forecheck on him, puck bounces off his stick and ends up in the net. We can live with that one, but you can't have two against there."
"Those things happen. Someone was going around the net and it hit something, and all of the sudden it was a snap shot with a bit of a screen in a split second," Pickard said. "Those things happen. They're unfortunate, but you'd like to see us get one of those bounces for sure."

Frustration was the word most used when reflecting on Wednesday's defeat.
"I'm sure it's frustrating, absolutely," Bednar said. "You lay it all on the line and you don't get any results out of it. It's frustrating for sure, especially when you're at where we're at. That's what we need every night; we need that effort every night, and we need to clean up a couple of those turnovers or big mistakes.
"The big guns played hard. I thought everyone played hard. We were playing four lines for the most part, matching their lines. Special teams, penalty kill was good. Listen, I think we started the game on time. We were ready to compete right away. We were getting out of our zone. Even right to the end, we go down two in the third. We didn't roll over. We kept fighting. We got one to make it 4-3, and then we continued to push and try to get the equalizer. We could have had it a couple times there at the end, and it didn't go in for us. My message is: 'You got to repeat that performance. You just got to clean up a couple mistakes.'"
One bright spot for the Avalanche was on the penalty kill. The squad went a perfect 3-for-3 in shutting down the NHL's second-ranked power play, a feat that has only happened to the Flyers twice now in the last six games.
"I think we had a solid game plan going into it. That's a dangerous, dangerous team, but I think more importantly the guys executed what we wanted to do up ice," Bednar said. "We gave them some trouble getting set up in the zone. In zone, we did a job winning some battles and we got them on the boards, pushing them in the right areas of the ice. Then when we gave up shots, Pick was able to see them. So we kept guys off to the side of the net."
Even with a positive to lean on, the Avs aren't content with almosts and close ones. The team needs wins.
"It's stuff to build on, but at the same time, in games where we do really good things like that, we need to come away with two points," said Duchene, who passed Valeri Kamensky (166) and Alex Tanguay (167) for sole possession of seventh place on the franchise's all-time goals list.
"We lost the game. We didn't get anything out of it. We're not throwing parties or anything," Bednar said. "We need some results. So it gets frustrating, but you got to reset. After a win or loss, we got to reset and go try and repeat that and clean it up a little bit."
That's what Colorado will look to do on Friday against the visiting Florida Panthers, repeat but improve.
"When we play our game, we can keep up with anyone," said Pickard. "We should take that into [the game versus] Florida, and hopefully we get a better result."