Here are three quick hits from the Colorado Avalanche's 4-0 victory against the Edmonton Oilers to go up 2-0 in the Western Conference finals.
1. Power outage
The Avalanche had two prime opportunities to start quickly in what ended up as a scoreless first period. An offensive zone penalty on the Oilers’ Kailer Yamamoto produced the first power play, but the Avs failed to record so much as a shot on goalie Mike Smith. Later in the period, the Oilers committed minors 29 seconds apart (Leon Draisaitl slashed Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Bret Kulak recklessly elbowed Nathan MacKinnon). Staked with a 91-second 5-on-3, the Avalanche was again punchless. There was simply too much puck-watching and not enough urgency to play at a pace that would tire out the Oilers’ penalty killers. During the combined 5-on-3/5-on-4, the Avs had only four shots on goal, none of the Grade-A variety.
2. Second-period blitz
A high-paced, but defensively smart start to the second period gave way to an Avalanche assault with three goals in a span of 2:04. Nazem Kadri was involved in all three goals. First: A poor pass by Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse was collected by Mikko Rantanen (skating away from the Oilers’ goal) and he flipped it to Kadri, whose wrist shot was deflected in by Arrturi Lehkonen. Second goal (15 seconds later): Lehkonen dug out the puck to Kadri. He passed it cross ice to an open Josh Manson at the point and his slap shot beat Smith. Edmonton called timeout. It didn’t work. Third goal (1:49 later). Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard got caught deep in the Avs’ zone, leaving Nurse to defend the 2-on-1; Kadri fed Rantanen for the goal.
3. No letup
In the Avalanche’s previous two home games, it blew a 3-0 lead in an eventual overtime loss to St. Louis (Game 5) and nearly squandered a 7-3 lead against Edmonton on Tuesday. Suffice to say, the Avalanche’s coaching message was received clearly in between games. Starting when the Avs extinguished the Oilers’ 46 seconds of power play time to begin the third period, the Avalanche kept the pressure on in the Oilers’ zone, but not with pinching defensemen, but a three-man forward unit. The Oilers had only three shots in the first 10 minutes of the third period. The Avs’ defensemen didn’t become overaggressive, trying to make a 3-0 lead a 6-0 lead. Smart playing-with-the-lead-hockey by the Avs.
MacKinnon added a power-play goal at the 15:20 mark of the third period for the final score.
