In Denver, Ryan Johansen scored a double for the Avalanche on Monday night in a 4-1 win over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning.
Alexandar Georgiev made 37 saves in the win.
“I liked our game. We had a couple of big breakdowns that I didn’t like, but for the most part I felt like we were checking and doing the right things and playing hard,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “They got something to say about it, but I liked our game on both sides of the puck today. We [won] the special teams battle again.”
The Avalanche improved to 15-6-0.
Johansen scored his double over the first two periods, with the first coming at 7:12 of the opening stanza for a 1-0 lead.
“I always look pass first and kind of try and survey that option,” Johansen said. “I felt, just like you said, he was really taking care of [Jonathan Drouin] over there, so I figured I’d shoot it.”
His double came at 1:48 of the middle frame for a 2-0 advantage.
“That was like slow motion. It just kind of popped out there and no one seemed to know where it was but me,” he said. “So I’m just happy I didn’t mess it up.”
The Lightning dropped to 10-7-5.
“We didn’t show push back until the last two minutes of the game. That was the disappointing part tonight,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “I don’t know if it’s all the travel we’ve been doing or what’s gone on, but it was just one of those games where we weren’t really in it from the beginning. Our execution was lackluster at best, and when you don’t execute, it’s tough to play.”
The Avs’ Cale Makar scored off the power play at 3:35 of the second for a 3-0 lead to Colorado.
“I think there’s still a lot more we can do in order to create more and generate more,” Makar said of the power play. “Whether it’s just less movement, more movement, I think we’ll take a look at it, but I think for us it all starts with having that attack mentality.”
Anthony Cirelli was the lone striker for Tampa, his goal came with 31 seconds left in the second period to trim the deficit to 3-1 headed to the third.
Valeri Nichushkin hit for an empty-net goal at 16:46 of the third for the 4-1 final.
“We were pretty sure it was offside right away. Problem was you have the blue line cameras on both sides and it’s blocked on both sides,” Bednar said. “I was a little bit concerned that they might rule it inconclusive, but then we kind of got the top view of it and it looked offside to me, so we felt comfortable challenging.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves in the loss.
“I think the game was there for the taking right from the beginning, and I just think we didn’t pounce on that. I didn’t think we were executing to the way we know how to do,” Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said. “We’re able to get one with 40 seconds left (in the second), and then in the third we just couldn’t find a way.”
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