COLUMBUS, Ohio — A poor start Tuesday night resulted in a deficit the Avalanche would match but not overcome.
Columbus winger Artemi Panarin broke a 2-2 tie early in the third period and Nick Foligno scored his second goal of the night down the stretch in leading the Blue Jackets to a 5-2 victory at Nationwide Arena.
The Blue Jackets scored an empty-net goal with two minutes to play. Both teams are 2-1.
Colorado, which got its goals from and (power play), struggled early and trailed 2-0 after the first period but used an excellent middle frame to draw even.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Columbus, because they had a good first period. But we stood around,” Avs coach said. “We weren’t ready to start. So when you stand around, it’s pretty easy to move the puck around you. It’s also the reason why we had three penalties in five, six minutes of the first period. When you’re not moving your legs, and not skating, teams are going move it around and you’re going to take penalties. That’s what happened.”
The Avs entered their first road game with the same lineup that produced Saturday’s 5-2 win over the visiting . However, made his first career start in net for Colorado, with (2-0) as the backup.
“First game, you want to start this off on the right foot,” Grubauer said after the morning skate. “The guys played unbelievable the last two games, and the last game was really important before we go on the road. We’ll try to carry that momentum into this game.”
That didn’t happen. The Avs struggled from the start, after failing to convert on an early power play; MacKinnon drew a hooking minor on his first shift. Following the failed power play, they took three consecutive penalties, the last two within 48 seconds of each other, and trailed 2-0 after Columbus scored a 5-on-3 power play 10:32 into the game. Rookie Sheldon Dries skated off for tripping at 9:07, and Compher, while on the penalty kill, went off for hooking at 9:55.
The Blue Jackets opened the scoring 6:49 into the game, with Foligno’s first goal, a tap-in from the doorstep.
The second period was the opposite of the first. Colorado was, by far, the better team. MacKinnon struck for his third goal of the season at 3:27, putting his big wrist shot through traffic — including the legs of linemate — and high over the left shoulder of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. And then the Avs got even on the power play, when Sam Girard inadvertently banked in a shot off defenseman David Savard and Soderberg, who was credited with the goal.
“Second period was great,” said Grubauer, who has lost three consecutive games to Columbus, including the first two when he was with the in the playoffs last spring. “First one and third one, that’s where we ran into some trouble. You play the right way in the second (but) you have to play the right way for 60 minutes, not one period.”
Footnotes. Blue Jackets first-line forward Brandon Dubinsky missed his first game in what will be a lengthy absence. He suffered an injury Sunday at practice and will miss 4-6 weeks, the team said. … First-year Avalanche forward was back in Columbus, where he played the last eight seasons with the Blue Jackets, the team that drafted him. First-year Avs defenseman also previously played for the Blue Jackets. Cole saw action in the last 20 regular-season games and all six playoff games last season for Columbus after being acquired from Pittsburgh. Cole and Calvert both signed with Colorado as unrestricted free agents on July 1. … Defenseman Patrik Nemeth, who missed Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury, was cleared to play but sat out for precautionary reasons — plus Bednar didn’t want to change the lineup coming off a win.
