In Denver Tuesday night, Milan Lucic and Darnell Nurse scored early for the Edmonton Oilers to stake them to a 2-0 lead.
Problem for Oilers was that’s all they managed on offense as the Colorado Avalanche struck for six straight goals in a 6-2 win to push them four points clear of the Arizona Coyotes who lost 3-1 Tuesday.
Alexander Kerfoot struck twice for Colorado – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“We still got two more games to win,” Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said.
The first period was more of a two-step shuffle than a skating exhibition for the Avs.
“A little too much standing around, too cautious, not being the aggressors, and they end up getting a couple goals on us,” Bednar said. “I liked our final 40 minutes, I had no problem with that at all. I liked the way we competed, we got on our toes, we were getting after their (defense), causing turnovers, making plays in all three zones.”
Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves in the win; the Avs are 7-0-2 in their nine games.
“I appreciate that the coach gave me a chance to play,” Varlamov said. “I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision because I haven’t played for a long time. I was just trying to stay focused and win this game. It’s important for us, we’re playing for the playoffs.”
Alexander Kerfoot sparked the rally with two strikes.
“First period was terrible, unacceptable,” Kerfoot said. “I thought we gained some momentum at the end of the period; we had a pretty good last five minutes. The goal that [MacKinnon] scored was huge and kind of got us kick-started, and we just went from there.”
The Oilers were eliminate3d form playoff contention, back in January, but officially after this week.
“Frankly, there are a lot of people burnt out from chasing,” Edmonton coach Ken Hitchcock said. “So every mistake is magnified, and it just seems like when you have to climb, climb, climb … it looks like we are tired doing the climbing. We look like a completely burnt team.”
Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Barrie, Matt Nieto, and Colin Wilson added single markers for the Avs.
“We got some momentum and we ended up just kind of turning it up after that, and we were able to sort of take over,” Gabriel Landeskog said. “It was good to see all of the guys chipping in, and it was good to see everybody playing the right way. Once we started the second (period), I thought it was playoff hockey the way we played.”
[WATCH:Â All Oilers vs. Avalanche highlights]
Mikko Koskinen made 23 saves in the loss.
“If you’re not playing meaningful hockey at this time, I’m sure it’s tough to get up. I think a few of us said this morning our motivation needs to be playing for the guy next to us for the rest of the year,” Nurse said.
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