Tonight, the Colorado Avalanche wrapped up a quick East Coast back-to-back trip with a game against the New Jersey Devils. Ultimately, they lost by a final score of 4-3, and dropped both games of this quick two-game road trip overall. Artturi Lehkonen scored two goals in garbage time, but the Avalanche came up short.
Let’s take a look back at the action from tonight.
First Period
New Jersey would be the first team to get on the board tonight, with a goal from Luke Evangelista. Evangelista was able to break the ice and get in front of Scott Wedgewood, got a really quick shot off when he got that opportunity, and was able to beat Wedgewood to give the Devils a 1-0 lead.
Colorado would tie the game at 1-1 before the end of the first period, with a goal from Gabe Landeskog, which started as a result of some incredible moves from Cale Makar, as he was able to walk past a couple of Devils players and get the puck to Landeskog, who was right in front of the New Jersey net. Despite the 1-1 tie on the scoreboard the Avalanche were getting outshot 15-4 at that point.
Second Period
This was the worst period for the Avalanche as they couldn’t get anything going offensively and their defensive game deteriorated. Declan Chisholm would give the Devils a 2-1 lead about halfway through the second period, as Wedgewood was screened in front of the net by a New Jersey player as the puck was shot towards the front of the net.
Third Period
While there was still hope for Colorado down just one, then Arseny Gritsyuk would make it 3-1 New Jersey early in the third period, as he caught Devon Toews and Cale Makar a bit flat-footed, and was able to get past both defenders to give the Devils a two-goal lead.
Jared Bednar decided to pull Wedgewood quite early for the extra attacker. With less than five minutes left to go in the third period, Jesper Boqvist would score an empty-net goal to make it 4-1 in New Jersey’s favor. After that, Artturi Lehkonen would score a garbage-time goal to make it 4-2. Lehkonen would also score with five seconds left in the third for a final score of 3-4.
Takeaways
That was a pretty disappointing back-to-back, all in all. Tonight, New Jersey nearly doubled the Avs in shots on goal at one point, which is not something you want to see from Colorado, especially when they were down by multiple goals in this game. Both last night and tonight, your best players were not your best players and really only showed up in the last five minutes of this game, which is not something that is going to win you games throughout the season consistently. The final score of 4-3 and shot total of 41-34 in New Jersey’s favor made this game look a lot closer than it was. The final half of the third period was entirely garbage time to help Colorado rehab their stats. Scott Wedgewood did his absolute best to keep the Avs in this game tonight, and he did a great job, especially considering that the players in front of him weren’t able to score throughout a majority of the game.
Upcoming
Colorado hosts the Tampa Bay Lightning in Denver on Friday, October 23. Puck drop will be at 7:00 p.m. MT.