In Denver, the St Louis Blues’ woes continued in a 2-1 loss to the Avalanche on Saturday.
Cale Makar potted the game-winner for the Avs with 41 seconds left on the clock.
“I don’t think it went straight in,” Makar said. “It looked like it pinballed off quite a few things. I just tried to throw it at the net.”
Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves in the win.
“It felt almost like a playoff game,” Grubauer said. “A pretty good performance from their goalie, us doing all the right things, shooting pucks, killing penalties. Those games are extremely fun to play. I wouldn’t mind if the playoffs started tomorrow, but we’ll see what’s going to happen over the next couple weeks.”
Ryan O’Reilly was the lone goal scorer for the Blues.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “It’s tough. We talked about not turning the puck over and making plays in the [defensive] zone and I make a terrible play, don’t block a shot and it’s in the back of the net and we don’t even get a point. I’ve got to take responsibility for this one. It’s kind of pathetic, my game tonight. We’re not going to beat that team if I’m not at my best and turn the puck over way too much. A lot of guys did good things. I’ve got to eat this one; it’s terrible by me.”
Nathan MacKinnon gave the Avs a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“St. Louis came out and they were ready to play, they engaged early,” Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said. “It took us a couple minutes. Middle of the first period we started to find our legs a little bit, we were able to get on the board first. It was a tight checking game, there wasn’t a lot of room to move. We haven’t played a game like that in a little bit and I thought our guys handled it well.”
Ville Husso made 32 saves in the loss.
“I saw the guy shooting the puck from the blue line,” Husso said of Makar’s game-winning goal. “It hit something or not, but it was a little unlucky. It was a tough, tough goal for us for sure. We played pretty hard and every guy battled.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.