The Colorado Avalanche opened the week with a tough, head-scratching loss against the upstart Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs entered Monday night’s tilt on a three-game winning streak, and made it four in a row with a 4-3 overtime win at Ball Arena.
William Nylander drove the dagger home, sending the Maple Leafs to their 23rd win of the year. The Leafs deserve credit for the gutsy performance, though the game could have easily been another big Avalanche victory. The story of this contest boiled down to a game of bounces.
So, here’s a closer look in this edition of the Avalanche news.
Avalanche lose a game of bounces
The Avalanche ultimately lost a game of bounces on Monday night. First, the Leafs opened the scoring with an unfortunate puck that hit Brent Burns’ skate and past Trent Miner for the goal.
While the Avalanche got the goal back and eventually took the lead in the first period, the game would come down to another bounce.
In overtime, Nathan MacKinnon rifled a rocket past Leafs’ goaltender Joseph Woll, hitting the post. The bouncing puck was too hot for Martin Necas to pop home for the game-winner. Instead, the play came back the other way, leading to a scoring chance for Toronto.
The game ended a few moments later with Nylander forcing a turnover at the Toronto blue line. The Leafs rushed up ice with Nylander getting the game-winner.
MacKinnon ended the night with three assists, with Martin Necas and Cale Makar adding a goal and an assist apiece. Brock Nelson got his 22nd, a power play goal that took all of five second to find the back of the net.
As for Trent Miner, he made 28 saves in the losing effort.
Another great start by Miner
Again, the Maple Leafs deserve a ton of credit. The Avalanche have embarrassed some very good hockey teams this season. In fact, the Maple Leafs could have won the game in regulation. But it was Trent Miner who stood tall. He took a tough-luck overtime decision. But it was his strong start that kept the Avalanche in the game.
Miner made his second start in a row, spelling Scott Wedgewood. While Wedgewood was well enough to play, coach Jared Bednar had revealed that Wedgewood needed a break. He got that as Miner made his second straight start.
If you take away the first-period goal off Burns’ skate, Miner only really allowed three goals. If you factor in the missed chance in overtime, again, Miner would have only allowed three tallies.
This loss was not on Miner by any means. The Maple Leafs played a solid game, and it was just a tough loss to suck up for Colorado on Monday night.
End of home winning streak
While the Avalanche can certainly afford an overtime loss at this point in the season, the defeat marked the end of the Avalanche’s home winning streak. The streak ended one game shy of the all-time franchise record.
The Avalanche had won 17 in a row at home. The record of 18 will stand for some time longer now. The Avs have a chance to start a new streak and have just enough home games left this season to break the record.
In the meantime, the Avs remain undefeated in regulation at home. All four of their regulation losses have come on the road, with three overtime/shootout losses coming at home.
The Avalanche will have a couple of days to recover. Their next game will be at home against the Nashville Predators on Friday night in a divisional matchup.