In Denver, Antti Raanta was called to the game to relieve the injured Darcy Kuemper and made 16 saves to help the Arizona Coyotes defeat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2, on Monday night.
Raanta iced in the game for the final 17:40 of the game.
“When you’re in the backup role it’s never too much fun to go in there, especially that late in the game,” Raanta said. “Sometimes it’s always a little bit easier to get in there so quickly. You don’t have any time to think. Just go there and the game keeps going. A couple shots right away, started to feel the puck a little bit. Tried to focus on the simple things, like trying to move sharp and try to beat the passes and just tried to make the saves. I was able to do that. Obviously, it feels really good.”
Andre Burakovsky and Valeri Nichushkin had scored against Kuemper in the middle frame.
“It seems like right now we’re playing games where we’re making every goalie that we play look like they’re an all-star,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “We can’t continue with that. We have to get them moving a little bit, making it tougher on them to see pucks.”
The Avs dropped to 13-8-2.
A late penalty to the Coyotes could not help the Avs get even.
“We go 40 seconds without someone taking control and shooting the puck,” Bednar said. “I would have liked to have seen five, six, eight shots on goal in the last minute when you’re up 6-on-4 instead of passing it around looking for the pretty play.”
The Coyotes had only 14 shots on goal for the game and still managed goals from Derick Brassard, Jakob Chychrun and Johan Larsson.
“It’s nice when you can play hard games on the road,” Chychrun said. “We need to stick with it. If we can continue to play our style of game, we’ll be in every game.”
Philipp Grubauer made 11 saves in the loss.
“We’re working hard, we’re creating a lot of chances, we’re grinding, we’re doing a good job,” Burakovsky said. “It was just a couple lucky bounces and sometimes that’s all it takes in this sport. We’ve just got to bounce back; the next one’s going to be huge.”
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