Avalanche stay resilient despite Kuemper injury to win Game 3
Push Predators to brink, don't want to 'give them any life' in Western First Round series
Darcy Kuemper seems to be OK after he
injured his right eye
when Nashville Predators forward Ryan Johansen's stick poked through his goalie mask late in the first period of a
7-3 win in Game 3
of the Western Conference First Round at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday.
Colorado leads the best-of-7 series 3-0, and Kuemper might even return for Game 4 here Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN1, TVAS, BSSO, ALT).
"Possibly," coach Jared Bednar said.
But the Avalanche went through some tense moments Saturday, and the way they responded is a good sign for a team hoping to endure four rounds to win the Stanley Cup.
"I'm sure every team has talked about it that ended up winning that last game of the season in the playoffs and hoisted that Cup, is that you're going to have to go through adversity on the way," captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "You're going to have to get some bounces and have some luck go your way.
"But for us, it's just about being resilient and sticking together and really just facing that adversity head on."
RELATED: [Complete Avalanche vs. Predators series coverage]
Colorado led 2-1 late in the first period when Johansen battled with Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon at the edge of the crease.
With Kuemper in his crouch, his head was low. Johansen held the blade of his stick below waist level, and the toe of the blade found its way into the right eyehole of Kuemper's mask.
Kuemper's mask flew off, and the goalie grabbed his right eye and fell to his knees in the left face-off circle. The trainers attended to him, and he left the game with 56.6 seconds left in the period.
"It's definitely worrisome when you see your starting goalie go down like that," defenseman Devon Toews said.
Asked if Johansen pushed his stick into Kuemper's mask, Bednar said: "I think their guy is going to the net, and he's trying to cause a little chaos. I don't think that he intentionally tried to hurt him, if that's what you're saying.
"I think it's a hockey play. Whether his stick's in his face or not, he's trying to cause some confusion and distract him a little bit. I don't know exactly what happened there, how it gets in there. But it's unfortunate, is what I think."
Former NHL goalie Martin Biron was not shocked.
"Unfortunately, it's a risk that goalies know about," Biron tweeted. "The cat-eye allows for a stick blade to potentially enter at the right angle. I actually wanted my cat-eye to be bigger, so I'd see more clearly during play, knowing full well a freak accident could happen."
Avalanche backup Pavel Francouz was unaware of the risk, though.
"Honestly, I didn't even know that something like this can happen until today," Francouz said. "I [had] never seen such injury. It's obviously scary that the stick can fit [into] the cage. But I think it's really small chance that something like this can happen."
Francouz came off the bench and made a big save on Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm with two seconds left in the period, and the Avalanche regrouped during the first intermission.
By the time they went out for the second period, they knew Kuemper's injury was not too serious, though it would keep him out the rest of the game.
"At least he's able to see and do all that, so that made us all feel better, I think," Bednar said.
Eeli Tolvanen scored on the power play 5:41 into the second to tie the game 2-2, but Landeskog responded with his own power-play goal at 10:58.
Roman Josi then tied it 3-3 at 12:54, but again Landeskog answered at 14:02 to put Colorado back in front. Nashville would challenge the play for goalie interference, but the call stood after a video review, resulting in a penalty for delay of game.
After that, the Predators wilted.
Connor Ingram misplayed the puck on the ensuing penalty kill, sending it from behind the net to the left circle for no one, and Nazem Kadri cashed in at 14:41 to make it 5-3.
Toews extended the lead to 6-3 at 9:33 of the third period when he fired a shot from the top of the left circle underneath Ingram's left pad, and Valeri Nichushkin scored into an empty net at 17:14 for the 7-3 final.
"They were trying to show me that they trust me and support me in the first intermission," Francouz said. "Most of all they supported me on the ice, because every time they scored, we scored right away. That's awesome if you have such a good team that you have the lead right away back, so that really helped us for sure."
The Avalanche have made this a lopsided series. They have outscored the Predators 16-6 and are 6-for-14 on the power play, including 4-for-5 on Saturday.
Still, Game 2 went to overtime before the Avalanche found a way to win 2-1, and they had to overcome Kuemper's injury and a back-and-forth affair in Game 3 before breaking it open.
So another test looms in Game 4 whether Kuemper plays or not.
"They definitely don't want to get swept at home, and we want to try to end this thing and don't give them any life," Landeskog said. "So it's going to be a big game on Monday."
