Preds Finish Back-to-Back Set with Loss in Colorado

Luke Kunin and Matt Duchene found the back of the net, but the Nashville Predators fell to the Colorado Avalanche by a 6-2 final in Denver on Saturday evening. The loss moves the club to 11-9-1 on the season.
Colorado got to work early, capitalizing on a Preds penalty just 4:41 into regulation as forward Mikko Rantanen tapped in a feed from Gabriel Landeskog. The Avs took advantage of another power play late in the first, with Rantanen again beating Preds goaltender David Rittich to put the home team up by two after 20 minutes of play.

"I think we started pretty poorly, actually," Preds forward Mikael Granlund said. "We were not doing a good enough job, but I think 5-on-5 we got in the game and we were playing OK. And I know that's hard, those penalties and they got those power-play goals, so obviously a tough thing to be down 2-0, but that's how it was and we couldn't find a way to get back in the game the way we wanted. But all the credit for them; that's a good team out there."

Kunin put Nashville on the board just five minutes into the second period, after deflecting a shot from Eeli Tolvanen into the net, but defenseman Bowen Byram stretched Colorado's lead back to two less than two minutes later.

That score held through the remainder of the second stanza and midway through the third, until Valeri Nichushkin tacked on another. Ten minutes later Rantanen found twine again for the hat trick.
Duchene scored Nashville's final goal of the evening off a long pass from Granlund - who earned his 400th career point from the effort - but the Avs sealed the deal with another goal before the night was out.

"I thought we did have some responses in the game, we had some really good looks and some pushes of the play that we weren't able to capitalize on and get a key goal at a key time," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "I think to start the game with three penalties in the first - they did a good job executing on the power play, so you're in the hole right away, and I think it gets their team going and got their fans going. Ideally, we want to start the road game a little bit different than we did tonight, but I thought we did have some fight back, we just didn't get rewarded for some of the things we did."

Rittich made his second start with Nashville on Saturday, and despite the score, he stopped 29 shots faced - no easy feat against one of the League's hottest offenses.
"I think it was good for him," Hynes said. "He's in a role now where [Juuse Saros] is getting the majority of the games, so he's working hard, he's preparing himself and it was nice to see him get in. We're going to need him as the year continues to go on, and the more opportunity he gets to play, it's good. I thought he made some big saves. I know the score got a little out of reach there at the end, but he battles, he competes and these are things he's got to learn from and get better from, too."
With a three-game homestand just around the corner, the Preds will look to shake the loss and start fresh at Bridgestone Arena this week.
"We couldn't find a way to win the game, and we've got to find a way to be better and get more wins," Granlund said. "We're kind of going 'win, lose, win, lose' and we want to get better and be better than that."

Notes:

The Preds scratched defensemen Philippe Myers and Ben Harpur (conditioning loan) as well as forward Michael McCarron on Saturday evening against the Avalanche.
Forward Mikael Granlund notched his 400th NHL career point on Saturday evening against the Avalanche on an assist to Matt Duchene.
Nashville returns home for a three-game homestand, starting with a contest against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday Evening.