In the last two months, the Colorado Avalanche hasn’t lost a game when it scores more than one goal. But the St. Louis Blues have found a way to keep the club from doing so twice in the past five weeks.
On a Saturday afternoon when the puck was bouncing and footing on the Ball Arena ice was fleeting at times, the Blues found one more bounce in a 2-1 victory. The Avs were red-hot coming into this contest, a 12-1-1 run that began after a 3-1 loss to these Blues in St. Louis. The loss also ended an 11-game home winning streak for the Avalanche.
The Avalanche controlled the puck for much of the second period, but neither team was able to create much offense. It was hard to continue that in the final period because of the parade to the penalty box.
Colorado killed off the first two infractions in the third, but St. Louis grabbed the lead shortly after the second. Martin Necas had his pocket picked in the neutral zone, and then he whiffed at a bouncing puck when he had a chance to get it out of the Avs’ end.
Seconds later, Pavel Buchnevich beat Necas to the front of the net and was able to whack a rebound through Mackenzie Blackwood and just over the goal line with 11:06 remaining in the third period.
St. Louis took a brief lead with a power-play goal midway through the first period. Zac Bolduc connected on a one-timer from Robert Thomas at 10:57 with Jack Drury in the box.
MacKinnon evened the score 72 seconds later. For the second straight game, the reigning league MVP scored a goal while standing still. He was stationed near the left post when Devon Toews’ shot was blocked in the slot, but the defenseman backhanded the loose puck to MacKinnon for a lay-up at 12:09 of the period.
MacKinnon has been in control of the NHL scoring race for the past three months, but Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has caught fire in the past couple of weeks and chased him down. Kucherov had his second straight four-point game Saturday afternoon.
Kucherov briefly took the outright scoring lead, but MacKinnon’s goal in the first left them tied with 109 points each. The Lightning have one more left to play than the Avalanche, and Tampa Bay is a three-team fight with Florida and Toronto for the Atlantic Division title.
These have been the two hottest teams in the NHL over the past five weeks. Dating back to when St. Louis beat Colorado in the second game after the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Blues entered this contest on a 14-2-1 run. Their 29 points in that span were the most in the NHL, while Colorado was tied for second with 25.
It was certainly a defensive battle, particularly in the second period. The Avs had one spurt of offensive chances during the period’s lone power play, but there were 33 shot attempts at 5-on-5 in the other 18 minutes between the clubs, and only seven of them reached the goaltenders.
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