In Denver, the Colorado Avalanche scored five goals in the third period and routed the Nashville Predators, 7-2, on Tuesday night in Game 1 of their Stanley Cup Playoffs first series.
“I felt like we played exactly the way we wanted to play,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We were using our speed, we were on pucks quickly, guys were forechecking hard, we were aggressive, and we defended real well. So a good 200-foot effort from our guys. It was really nice to score early.”
Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves in the Avs win.
Matt Duchene scored both of the Nashville goals.
“We lost the game. We weren’t good enough. They were better than we were tonight,” Predators coach John Hynes said. “I think we hurt ourselves in certain areas that are easily correctable, and I think we have a better game on the ice. We will be better in Game 2 than we were in Game 1.”
Nathan MacKinnon scored the first of his double in the first period outburst, Cale Makar, Andrew Cogliano, Devon Toews, and Artturi Lehkonen also struck in the first period.
“We talked about it beforehand, about coming out to a fast start and playing our game, and that was us getting rewarded,” Landeskog said. “Nobody was cheating. We weren’t hanging on the wrong side of the puck trying to create scoring chances. We were just sticking to our game, playing hard and playing fast, and we ended up getting some scoring chances and we were able to capitalize on a lot of them. Obviously, that led to a big first period for us and kind of carried that through this game.”
Gabriel Landeskog also scored for the Avalanche.
David Rittich got the start for Nashville and yielded all five first period goals before getting hook, he made eight saves.
Connor Ingram finished up the game with 30 saves.
“We have a lot of character. We got a lot of great leadership. We’re tight,” Duchene said. “We’re family first, and it’s one of if not the tightest team I’ve ever been on. We have a lot more pride than what we showed tonight. We’ve always bounced back this year, so we’re going to need to do that Thursday. That’s a team over there that wants to win the Stanley Cup and believes they can. We have to stand in there a lot better.”
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