In Denver, the Colorado Avalanche stopped the Arizona Coyotes, 3-1, on Friday night.
Alexandar Georgiev made 17 saves in the Colorado win.
The Avalanche moved to 42-23-6, and are just one point back of the Minnesota Wild for second in the Central Division.
Nathan MacKinnon staked the Avs to a 1-0 lead in the first period off a power play goal..
“For me, ‘Nate’ finds a way to become more productive later in the year when the games matter, and that’s just his will and want and desire to be successful and mixed with his ability and just the drive he has,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I find this season to be really impressive because [he has] different linemates all the time.
“Some of the years when he was putting up [numbers], he’s playing with [Gabriel Landeskog] and [Mikko Rantanen] all the time, and that’s what impresses me with him and Mikko this year. We’ve had them together. We’ve had them apart. It doesn’t matter, they just keep driving things forward and having success, which is impressive to me.”
Clayton Keller scored his 33rd f the campaign for the Coyotes to tie the game, 1-1.
“Their top line is dangerous, the Keller-Schmaltz line (with Barrett Hayton). That’s a dangerous line,” Bednar said. “I don’t think they get enough credit for how well they’ve been playing recently. A big part of their offense, and I wanted to play MacKinnon against them tonight and I wanted ‘Val’ there.”
It stayed that way into the third period when the Avalanche potted two goals for the win.
“I thought that they had a solid game defensively, but as the game went on I felt like we started to shoot the puck a little bit more, cause a little more chaos at the net, and we got some good looks,” Bednar said. “Second period, it really kind of started for me with the scoring chances that I liked, and then we continued it on in the third and finally got rewarded.”
Arizona dropped to 27-34-12, and were officially eliminated from the playoff race.
“Really good team on the other side, playing really [well] lately. They have elite players, game breakers,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “I think we did a good job, impressed by the effort. It’s a tough schedule, but the guys never quit. They stayed with it. A ton of respect for the way they competed.”
In the third, Cale Makar scored at 6:41 of the period for a 2-1 lead to the Avs.
“He’s (MacKinnon) so fun to watch. I get to see it on a daily basis. Some of the moves he pulls, it’s pretty cool,” Makar said. “Tonight there were like five minutes left, he does the thing where he places the puck and then skates into it. I like that. It’s pretty cool to see guys like him and [Edmonton Oilers center Connor] McDavid do that.”
At 11:17, J.T. Compher hit for a power play goal and 3-1 final.
“Guys are just in good spots,” Makar said. “You saw on the power play tonight: I shoot one, ‘Comph’ is obviously in a perfect spot there and picks up the tip and rebound.”
Karel Vejmelka made 28 saves in the Coyotes loss.
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