In Denver, the thunder heard throughout the mountain range was the Avalanche offense that unloaded on the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday evening.
Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog each had tow goals in a 7-1 thrashing of the Knights in Game 1 of their second round series.
“I loved the way our team played tonight, right away, out of the gate, skating, relentless puck pressure, great commitment to our checking game, capitalizing on our chances,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought the top line set the tone again, but our whole team was involved and playing well and skating well.”
Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves in the win.
“Listen, rest is a weapon, especially this time of year,” Landeskog said. “We’ve played a lot of hockey, and I think the coaches did a good job of managing our rest throughout the week and making sure we were ready to go. We knew they were coming off a seven-game series and had one day of rest coming into altitude, so we wanted to make sure we have a fast start, and we did.”
William Karlsson was the lone striker in a dreadful loss by Vegas.
“Well, obviously, you know, you’re not feeling good about yourself,” Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer said. “But I think we have to put it in perspective, and playoffs are about having short memories and getting ready for the next one. Whether you lose 2-1 or 7-1, you can debate the meaning of whether you lose badly or not badly. The bottom line was, we weren’t good enough tonight. They were very good. We’ve got to be better in Game 2.”
Through all of that scoring, the Avs were only 1-for-6 on the power play.
Mikko Rantanen and Brandon Saad added single markers for Colorado.
Game 2 will be IN Denver on Wednesday.
Cale Makar added the Avs’ only power play goal late in the third period for the 7-1 final.
Vegas’ Ryan Reaves was assessed a match penalty and a double minor for a nine-minute power play for Colorado.
“Obviously, such a long power play,” Makar said. “We know we have to stay in tune with it regardless of who they’re throwing out, if they’re mixing it up and whatnot. For us, and especially for me, I had a few giveaways, definitely need to be tuning up.”
Robin Lehner got the start for the Knights and yielded seven goals and made 30 saves on the night.
“We didn’t play well,” Vegas’ Mark Stone said. “They played a good game. They came out ready to go. They’d been sitting there, raring to go. We had to play a smarter first period, a smarter start to the second. You just can’t get down like that. But we’ll flush this one. We’ll see what we did wrong.”
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