For the second straight game, the Colorado Avalanche take an early lead but come up short in the end.
Colorado wasted no time getting on the board. Gabriel Bourque scored his first of the postseason about two and a half minutes into the game, assisted by J.T. Compher and Colin Wilson. Just like game one of the series, this would be the only score of the first period despite the Avalanche outshooting the Predators 11-9.
A penalty to Gabriel Landeskog for tripping Kyle Turris at the end of the first period carried over to the second and allowed Nashville to tie the game. A minute into the second period, Kevin Fiala beat Jonathan Bernier with four seconds left on the man advantage. Colton Sissons and Turris got the assists on the goal.
“They got their momentum from their power play early in the second” Colorado head coach Jerad Bednar said after the game.
The Avalanche missed their fair share of opportunities due to a lack of discipline. Their first power play of the second period was limited to 16 seconds when David Warsofsky was called for holding Austin Watson.
Four minutes later, Colorado would be called for too many men on the ice and forced to kill another penalty. Nashville was only able to tally one shot on net during their second power play of the period.
Bednar said of Nashville’s man advantage, “They got their momentum on the power play and they kept it because we took, you know, I think we were short handed 3 times in the second period, which is too much.”
With 7:24 left in the period, the Predators took the lead on an unassisted 4-on-4 goal by Viktor Arvidsson.
At the 16:32 mark of the second, Nashville tacked on one more goal from Ryan Johansen, his first of the playoffs to make it 3-1.
The two goal lead only lasted 36 seconds. Nathan MacKinnon put a backhand goal past Rene, doubling the number of Avalanche goal total from game 1.
Just like the end of the first period, the Avalanche went into the intermission with a penalty that carried over. Matt Nieto was called for roughing P.K. Subban at the side of the net after taking a shove to the face from Rene.
At the end of two periods, shots were even between the two clubs at 19 each.
With 12:44 left in the game, a bad pass from Nikita Zadorov, in the Avalanche zone, lead to a turnover and Watson’s second goal of the game and a 4-2 Predators lead.
“We handed them a couple of goals tonight,” Bednar said, “The one on the change, late, we had time and we threw t over by our bench, and they got one there.”
It took a two man advantage for Colorado to put another goal on the board. During the Turris holding penalty, Sissons was called for tripping. The following power play saw Landeskog record his first goal of the playoffs and again the Avalanche were able to get within one.
As time was winding down in the game, Colorado pulled Bernier for an extra attacker. With just over a minute left, Mattias Ekholm cleared the puck the length of the ice and Ryan Hartman beat out the icing call to put the puck in an empty net.
Colorado once again pulled Bernier for an extra skater and Alexander Kerfoot scored with 36 seconds left in the game. The last half minute of the game was not enough time for the Avalanche as the Predators won the next two face-offs and prevented Colorado from putting another shot on net.
Nashville head coach Peter Laviolette said after the game, “I said it after the first game and before the series started, we know what we’re up against. We know we have to compete hard. We thought we did a good job with that.”
Laviolette went on to say of his team’s performance in the offensive zone, “The offensive zone stuff is good, and that’s where we can feel good about our game and try to make something happen offensively, but when it comes time to play defense, I think we’ve done a pretty good job too.”
Nashville will take the 2-0 series lead to Denver for game 3 on Monday.
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