It’s a rare occasion when Sidney Crosby plays in Denver and this season the intriguing matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and Pittsburgh Penguins came early in the season. It was an interesting tug-of-war in the early stages but settled into a 5-2 blowout in Colorado’s favor on two Artturi Lehkonen goals, a first career goal for TJ Hughes and a Nathan MacKinnon power play goal.
The Game
It was a fairly even start but the Penguins exploded for two goals near the halfway mark of the opening period. First, Pittsburgh executed a nifty passing play in the neutral zone and Evgeni Malkin finished it off on a somewhat screened Mackenzie Blackwood. Then, just 29 seconds later the Eastern Conference squad found room behind a lax Avalanche defense and finished off a textbook 2-on-1 with Bryan Rust receiving the pass from Sidney Crosby.
Suddenly down two Colorado found a little life scoring on their third shot of the evening as the top line executed their own transition passing play finished off by Artturi Lehkonen. The teams got to finish out by trading power plays and Colorado’s didn’t inspire much confidence so the period ended with Pittsburgh up 2-1 and a more troubling 14-5 shot advantage.
Second periods always seen to be an Avalanche favorite and they got what they needed a minute after the first intermission as Lehkonen got his second of the game on a greasy net front deflection. Shortly after Nathan MacKinnon received a penalty shot and couldn’t convert, amazingly going 0/5 in his career with the opportunity. But, it took just a minute later for Colorado to find the back of the net when Gabe Landeskog got a tap-in chance after Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs was found lying face forward in the crease. To finish out the period there was another trading of power play chances. The Avalanche technically didn’t cash in on theirs but right after it expired TJ Hughes potted his first NHL goal to give Colorado a 4-2 lead.
There wasn’t much mystery as to who would win the game by the third period but Pittsburgh got a few chances on the board anyway, though no goals. Colorado finally found that elusive power play goal when Nathan MacKinnon scored on it with five minutes to go. At 5-2 the game was officially over in Colorado’s favor.
Takeaways
This game was not a defensive masterpiece despite Colorado holding the Penguins to their two first period goals. Pittsburgh won the analytic matchup at 55% expected goals and Corsi for, which matched the eye test of several extended Pittsburgh shifts in the Avalanche zone. High danger shots favored Pittsburgh 18-10 as well. Tonight, Colorado clearly found enough offense and counterattack to turn the game in their favor but it is a trend to keep an eye on moving forward.
With all three of Logan O’Connor, Zach LHeureux and Nic Roy currently unavailable, Jared Bednar has been running his lineup with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. It wasn’t a particularly great night for defenseman Noah Juulsen who played just over seven minutes and a 20% share of the expected goals. Heading into an east coast road trip, the Avalanche might want to bring a full roster of players.
Upcoming
A weekend off and then the start of a quick two-game road trip in Philadelphia on Monday, October 19th. Puck drop is at 5 p.m. MT.