DENVER — The Blues’ weekend series with the Avalanche always figured to be a high-risk, high-reward production. The way the Avalanche (very good) and the Blues (not very good) had been playing, expectations were low for the Blues against one of the best teams in the league after they had managed just one of four points against the Ducks, one of the worst teams in the league, the previous weekend.
But if they won, that would be something.
The Blues, winless in five games and in 10 of their past 12, and who started the day in fifth place in the West Division, took a 1-1 tie into the third period, giving them 20 minutes to render the trip a success or a failure and possibly set the tone for the final month of the season. The Avalanche had the better of the play in the period, with more of the puck and more of the chances, but the Blues defense held until 40.1 seconds remained when a shot by defenseman Cale Makar from the blueline found its way through traffic, and maybe off someone else, to give the Avalanche a 2-1 win over the Blues on Saturday night.
Even with a loss, this game, more than any of the others recently, showed that the Blues can stick with the top teams in their division but in the end, it netted them zero points and kept them in fifth place in the West Division.
The Blues had been kept in the game by the play of backup goalie Ville Husso, who faced a typical barrage from the Avalanche and stopped two breakaways that would have put Colorado ahead. Husso was going to have to be on his game going against Colorado’s Philipp Grubauer, who came into the game with a 1.78 goals-against average, third best in the league overall and best among starters. The Blues had trouble with him, but the Avs did with Husso as well.
The Blues now get another test on Monday when they face the other best team in the West, Vegas, at Enterprise Center.
The Blues came out and played the kind of first period coach Craig Berube had talked of, being assertive from the start.
“I think just being direct more than anything,” he said before the opening faceoff. “You could take a page out of Colorado. They’re a direct team, right from the neutral zone faceoff, they went in and it’s going in and they’re getting after it. That’s the way they play. We should be playing that way more consistently, that’s our game, that’s our style of play and it always has been. It’s been very successful but we’re not getting that for 60 minutes right now and that’s an issue.”
The Blues had the first seven shots of the game but couldn’t score, despite some decent chances. Mike Hoffman and Brayden Schenn teamed up to keep the puck in the Avalanche zone and Schenn had a scoring chance but he held on to the puck waiting for Grubauer to open up part of the net but he never did and Schenn ran out of space.
Waiting for the first shot against Husso has taken on an uncomfortable level of suspense since he has allowed a goal on the first shot he has faced three times this season. Colorado got its first two in quick succession about six minutes in, and then Colorado had four in a matter of seconds as Colorado got the puck in front and kept whacking away at the puck and Husso, who did a snow angel to finally cover it up. Not for the last time, shoves were exchanged after the whistle.
Husso had to make a save on a breakaway by Mikko Rantanen after Vince Dunn fell down at the blueline, Another thing on the to-do list for the Blues was fewer penalties, but Tyler Bozak was called for tripping with 12:02 to go in the first. The Blues killed it nimbly, even having a scoring chance that went unfulfilled when Schenn couldn’t control a bouncing pass from Jaden Schwartz.
It was Colorado that finally scored first. Nathan MacKinnon, who had two goals on Friday night, came down the right wing and found a corner on a shot that may have grazed Torey Krug’s stick on the way in, just throwing Husso off enough.
Colorado got another power play, this time on a slash by Schenn, but this one ended with Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog called for roughing after shoving Jake Walman to the ice. No one was innocent on this one. Walman had pinned Landeskog against the goalpost, and when Landeskog got free, his stick ended up in between Walman’s legs, and not casually. After the stick got free, Landeskog shoved Walman and down he went.
The Blues didn’t score on the power play but had plenty of chances and kept the pressure on. Eleven seconds after the penalty ended, the Blues tied the game, with Ryan O’Reilly putting in a shot in the midst of a mélange of bodies, with so many around that the only person who knew it had gone in was Krug, who was lying on the ice, with the upper part of his torso inside the goal. When the puck went over his head, he knew something had happened.
The challenge for the Blues would be that while they had come out well in the first period on Friday, they didn’t come out well in the other two periods. They did better in the second period this time, thanks to an early penalty on the Avs that gave them a power play.
But just as Friday’s second period was disjointed because of penalties, so it was on Saturday. The Blues penalty box hit capacity when Schwartz was called for goaltender interference, Robert Bortuzzo got in a fight and then 47 seconds later, Justin Faulk was called for tripping. Colorado had 1:13 of a two-man advantage, but the Blues killed that, then killed what was left of the power play after that. The Blues almost got a break amid all that when Walman fell down and Colorado was going to get called for tripping, but at the last moment, referee Steve Kozari convinced Gord Dwyer that Walman had fallen on his own. Then, to spice things up even more, Colorado’s Brandon Saad was hit by a shot so hard that the puck almost bounced out of the Blues zone. Saad left the ice putting no pressure on his left foot.
