Nashville, Tenn. – The Avalanche’s uniforms did not show up until right before game time Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Avs, their power play never did.
The Avs, who went 0-for-7 on the power play, dropped their second straight game, 1-0, to the Nashville Predators at the Gaylord Entertainment Center.
A wardrobe malfunction – the Avs forgot to pack their uniforms and had to rush them on a flight from Denver before the game – forced the team into their numberless, nameless gray and black practice jerseys for the pregame warm-ups.
The Avs went on to give a good effort against the Predators. But a soft first-period goal allowed by goalie Jose Theodore to Nashville’s Scottie Upshall held up, as the Avs couldn’t find the back of the net against backup Predators goalie Chris Mason. Mason stopped 42 shots to improve to 3-0 in his career against Colorado.
“We had a couple empty nets there in the third that somehow didn’t find their way through,” Avalanche coach Joel Quenne- ville said. “We worked hard and had enough pucks at the net to where, generally, you’re going to get at least one. But they played well in front of their goalie, and their goalie was good tonight.”
The Avs blew a great early chance to lead. The Predators were called for three penalties in a span of 1:01, giving the Avs a lengthy 5-on-3 power-play advantage. But things went bad when, early into the advantage, Colorado defenseman John- Michael Liles was called for slashing right after the Avs lost a key faceoff in the Nashville zone.
The Predators killed off the rest of the Avs power play, giving them life and heavy applause from the sellout crowd.
“We just didn’t score on the PP when we had chances,” Avs right wing Milan Hejduk said. “We didn’t play that bad. We have to try to take some positives out of this. It’s not the end of the world that we lost. But we have to win some of our home games in front of us now.”
At the 9:35 mark, Upshall put a shot from far outside the left faceoff circle and appeared to be getting off for a line change. There was no need, as the puck fluttered and beat Theodore to the short side.
“It was kind of a knuckleball,” Theodore said of the goal. “Those are the kinds of (goals) that you don’t want to have happen too often. But we kind of came back and forgot about that first goal. I think we played a solid road game, played solid defensively, but we just couldn’t get the goal.”
Mason came into the game with a career 1.97 goals-against average and .947 save percentage in two previous victories against the Avs.
The Avs had a power-play chance early in the third period, but despite some good chances, failed to beat Mason. They got other man-advantage chances with 12:21, 6:46 and 1:31 left and got the same results. The Avs are 2-for-40 on the power play on the road this season.
“It just didn’t go in tonight,” Avs winger Andrew Brunette said. “We did a lot of good things. It’s just disappointing the end result was 1-0. I thought we really tried to do the right things tonight, but we didn’t get rewarded. It’s frustrating, but we have to take some positives out of it.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
