Kicking off an east coast road trip, the Colorado Avalanche visited Long Island in search of their 20th win on the season against the New York Islanders. That milestone will have to wait as the Avalanche suffered their second regulation defeat in a 6-3 final for the Islanders.
Val Nichushkin, Martin Nečas and Artturi Lehkonen all scored for the Avalanche but it wasn’t enough as Colorado gave up 42 shots to their 38 in a game Colorado never led.
It was a start that’s become a little too familiar lately with the Avalanche giving up the first goal in the game. Kyle MacLean was the beneficiary of a scramble at the net front, which had Mackenzie Blackwood down in the crease, and put the puck in the net. Jared Bednar challenged for goaltender interference but was denied and thus the goal stood for New York.
Due to the unsuccessful challenge, Colorado had to go on the penalty kill and then had to do so again a little later in the first period. New York’s dead last in the NHL ranked power play wasn’t much of a threat but still the Islanders managed to put up another tally before the end of the period. This time it was Anders Lee striking as he was lost in coverage and fired home a shot short side. After 20 minutes of play New York held a 2-0 lead.
Usually the Avalanche counteract their slow starts with good energy right out of the gate in the second period and that didn’t happen here as the Islanders added to their lead when Bo Horvat picked up a loose puck in traffic to put the Islanders up by three.
Not long after that the Avalanche really started collapsing as Blackwood let in a goal that bounced off his glove to Adam Pelech for a 4-0 New York lead. That finally woke up Colorado and 40 seconds later Val Nichushkin tipped a Sam Malinski shot to get the Avalanche on the board. Another minute later, Martin Nečas pushed the puck past Ilya Sorokin and Colorado was back in the game.
The action calmed down for the rest of the second period after that flurry of goals but New York got in another strike before the end of the frame on their 32nd ranked power play. Matt Barzal put a beautiful backhand past Blackwood and the Islanders took a 5-2 lead into the second intermission.
Colorado made it interesting with a quick goal from Artturi Lehkonen to start the third period but they couldn’t build on any momentum to get the score to within one. With just over three minutes to go Colorado received a power play and pulled Blackwood for the extra attacker but couldn’t get anything in the net going 0/3 on the man advantage for the contest. New York, however, did pot another goal for their sixth and final score when Casey Cizikas found the empty net to arrive at the 6-3 final for the Islanders.
It had to happen sometime for the Avalanche to pick up another regulation loss. The squad had been flirting with it for some time now with their bad first period starts. Blackwood at this time may not be as much of a safety net as Scott Wedgewood has been for some defensive breakdowns they are giving up. All that added up to a lackluster effort as the schedule begins to pick up in the month of December.
Though the homecoming may have been bittersweet, Brock Nelson received his tribute video from the Islanders for his first game back on Long Island. He contributed a secondary assist on the Nichushkin goal on the evening.
Another — you guessed it — weekend back-to-back matinees starting with the New York Rangers at 10:30 a.m. MT on Saturday, December 6th.