Avs (Finally) Break Through Offensively vs. Coyotes

After firing 51 shots but losing 4-2 in Game 3, it could have been easy for doubt to start creeping in the minds of the Colorado Avalanche players and have them get away from what made the team successful in the first two outings of Round 1.
That didn't happen on Monday, as the Avs stayed focused on the process and finally broke through the Arizona Coyotes defense and goaltender Darcy Kuemper, winning 7-1 to move one game away from advancing to the Stanley Cup Playoffs Second Round.
"I wouldn't say angry, [but] hungry. We had so many chances in Game 3 and obviously couldn't get a puck in the net," said Colorado forward Matt Calvert. "It was nice to see us get that early one, and we just kept going from there. A full-team effort tonight obviously, and we were having some fun out there scoring some big goals."

Calvert and linemates Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Matt Nieto sparked the Avs' offense at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, with less than six minutes to play in the opening frame. Bellemare sprung Nieto for an odd-man rush before Calvert received the ensuing pass while coming down the left-wing side. The two Matts exchanged a pass once again, but the return feed ricocheted off Nieto's skate and into the net.
It wasn't by design, but the tally unleashed the Avalanche's offensive flood gates from there on.
"Our line, we talk about just playing the same way and good things will happen," Nieto said. "That play is just a good track by Belly, and me and Calvy are off to the races. It's just a great play by Calvs, and I was able to angle it off my skate and into the net."

Nazem Kadri then scored two power-play markers by cleaning up rebounds in the crease minutes later to give Colorado a 3-0 lead going into the intermission. Joonas Donskoi tallied on a 2-on-1 rush in the second period before Arizona was able to get on the scoreboard, but that was all of the offense Arizona could muster.
Third-period tallies from Cale Makar, Calvert and Mikko Rantanen gave the Avs their biggest victory since an 8-2 defeat of the San Jose Sharks on May 4, 2002 in Game 2 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
The win marked the ninth time in Avalanche/Nordiques history and the fifth since moving to Colorado that the franchise scored at least seven goals in the game, and head coach Jared Bednar said the onslaught was built on how the team finished Game 3 on Saturday.
The Avalanche outshot the Coyotes 31-11 in the final two periods of that contest, including by a 15-6 margin in the third. On Monday, Colorado had the first six shots on goal before Arizona had its first--after the halfway mark of the opening period.
"The purpose that we played with late in that game, we wanted to bring it to the start of this game. I thought we did a nice job," Bednar said. "We were skating, supporting the puck well. It was a good work ethic to it and pace to it. We ended up earning some power plays and capitalizing on them tonight. That's a difference the power play can make for you. The penalty kill has been really good, power play now has been really good as well."

The Avs finished 3-for-7 on the power play, the first time the club has scored that many times on the man advantage in the playoffs since April 9, 2004 against the Dallas Stars (3-for-9).
Twelve different Colorado players found their way onto the scoresheet, including six with multi-point efforts. Kadri also added an assist to his two markers, while Calvert (goal, assist), Gabriel Landeskog (two assists), Nathan MacKinnon (two assists), Makar (goal, assist) and Rantanen (goal, assist) also produced multiple points to help the club finally solve Kuemper, who entered the day with the most shots faced and saves in the postseason.
Kuemper stopped 18-of-22 pucks before being replaced at the start of the third period.
"It was nice to get a few past him," said MacKinnon. "We didn't change anything, honestly. We just got some bounces. We know we're one of the best goal scoring teams in the league this year, so try to stick with it. We're such a deep team that eventually it was going to go in."
The Avalanche has now put the Coyotes on the brink of elimination, but the last win in a best-of-seven series seems to always be the toughest.
Arizona is expected to bring its best game of the year when the squads next face off on Wednesday, and Colorado needs to match it, being aggressive in the offensive end like in Game 3 and as opportunistic as it was in Game 4.
"Regardless of how you win, we have to be hungry for Game 5," MacKinnon said. "We're going to be desperate, like we're down a game. I'm not sure what their mindset will be, but it's not really our concern. We just have to be ready to close them out in Game 5 and expect a tough one."

KADRI'S IMPACT

Nazem Kadri's three-point game marked his first of his career during the postseason, and he also recorded his first multi-goal game in the playoffs as well.
Kadri leads the Avs in goals (four) and points (nine) this summer, and his three game-winning tallies are the most among all NHL players during the 2020 playoffs. All of his tallies have come on the power play--and in similar ways with him burying rebounds--making him the first Colorado player with four goals on the man advantage since Steve Konowalchuk in 2004.

"I just try to come to play and compete every single night," Kadri said. "That's what good pros do, and I just felt like I didn't have my best game last game so I just wanted to give it everything I had. Got a couple nice breaks early, and obviously that that makes the rest of the game a little bit easier."
The London, Ontario, native has already set new career highs in goals, assists and points for a single postseason and has nearly matched his career total entering this year as well. He had 10 points (three goals and seven assists) in his 19 previous playoff games in his career with Toronto Maple Leafs from 2013-2019.

SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, EVERYBODY

For the third time in the series, Colorado outshot Arizona and severely limited the Coyotes chances. The Avs finished with a 30-15 edge in shots on goal and didn't allow the Yotes to reach double-digits in the category in any of the periods. Arizona had three shots in the first frame, six in the second and six in the third.
Continuing to fire pucks on Kuemper but create more traffic in front of him was the goal of the Avs in the fourth contest of the series, and they accomplished as much.
"That's the mentality, for certain. Got to stay with it, and as cliché as that sounds, it's the truth," Bednar said of continuing the team's shooting mindset from the previous outing. "The more shots and opportunities that you can create, the better the chances you have to score."
The Avalanche is outshooting the Coyotes 149-84 in total in the series, averaging 37.3 for and 21 against.

VERY SPECIAL TEAMS

While the Avalanche allowed its first power-play goal against in the series, the team's penalty-kill unit was still up to the task in suffocating the Yotes' offense.
Colorado had denied each of Arizona's first 10 man-advantage chances in the series before Jakob Chychrun's shot found the top corner late the in the second period. The Yotes finished 1-for-4 on the power play in the game and are now 1-for-13 in the series (7.7 percent).
By the time Chychrun found twine, Kadri had already scored twice on the power play and Mikko Rantanen added a third in the final minutes of the game.
"I think it's just simplifying and not trying to do too much, shooting the puck, working hard to get it back," Kadri said of the Avalanche's man advantage. "I think that's what makes us an effective unit, and if our work ethic matches our skill, sky's the limit. So we're really going to look to the power play and special teams in general down the stretch."
Colorado scored multiple goals on the power play for the second time this postseason (2-for-5, Aug. 5 at Dallas Stars) and is now 8-for-32 overall with the extra man during these playoffs (25 percent).

ROSTER NEWS

Vladislav Namestnikov missed his second-consecutive contest after getting hurt following a collision in Game 2 on Friday. Bednar didn't have anything new to report on the forward postgame.
"He was unfit to play again. I keep calling him day-to-day," Bednar said. "Every day I get news from our trainers if he's fit to play or not, and today he just wasn't. We went with the same lineup."
Bednar might have to mix up his game roster for the next outing as forward Andre Burakovsky left early in the third period after blocking a shot and didn't return to play. Bednar did not address Burakovsky's status after the outing.

MORE NOTES

Nathan MacKinnon extended his playoff-opening point streak to seven games (two goals, seven assists) and is the first Avalanche player to begin a postseason with a point in seven consecutive games since Peter Forsberg did it in 2003-04.
Cale Makar finished with two points (goal and assist) and now has six points (two goals, four assists) in the 2020 playoffs, matching his total from last season.
Makar's goal 19 seconds into the third period is the second-fastest goal to begin a period in Avalanche/Nordiques franchise history (Peter Forsberg, 0:17, April 22, 1998 vs. Edmonton, third period).
Gabriel Landeskog notched two assists and now has six this postseason, a new career high that surpasses his previous best of five assists during the 2018-19 playoffs.
Matt Calvert recorded his fourth career multi-point postseason game (last: April 28, 2019 at San Jose).
The game marked the ninth time since moving to Denver that the club has notched three or more power-play goals in a playoff contest.