WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Avalanche loses 3-2 after leading 2-0 in the second period. .
The game-winning goal came off an Avalanche turnover in the neutral zone. Defenseman Zach Redmond was attempting a short pass to forward Blake Comeau. But the play went the other way, on a 2-on-1 rush with Redmond stuck behind the play. Redmond politely declined comment.
Colorado is now 25-6-2 when taking a lead into the third period. In real math, that’s 25 wins, seven loses.
Said coach Patrick Roy: “We have to be better defensively. We made some mistakes at key moments. It was a bad turnover on the third goal and bad tracking on the second one. We need to be better in those moments of the game.”
About Redmond’s play that turned the puck the other way, Roy said: “I’m not going there. We win and we lose as a team. We stick together.”
Matt Duchene had a hand in both Avalanche goals, scoring the second. He said: “You go into the third period up a goal, it doesn’t matter what happened at the end of the second. Obviously you have to reset and come back out. It’s been a problem, closing out games, and tonight was no different. Give them credit, they played really well in the third. But we got to find a way to calm things down and push back at the right time. We didn’t do that. We pushed hard at the end but it was too little too late.”
Duchene s goal was his 29th of the season. One more and he ll be the first Avalanche player to reach 30 since Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk, as teammates in 2006-07. Hejduk had 29 the following season, but the 30-goal mark has not been reached in the last eight seasons.
I spoke with Duchene about reaching 30 and will write about that for Monday.
