The puck was on Dryden Hunt’s stick. The frame of the goal, momentarily, gloriously, was unoccupied.
Just not long enough.
St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington, still public enemy No. 1 in Colorado after last season’s second-round playoff series, lunged back in front of the net as Hunt tried to get off a shot in the third period of the Avalanche’s riveting 3-2 loss Monday night. Josh Leivo’s stick disrupted Hunt as he tried to turn and fire. Some 18,000 Ball Arena thought the game was tied, but Binnington recovered in time.
It was one of Binnington’s 45 saves, and ironically the best Avalanche opportunity in a frantic third period that ended with a 6-on-3 mad dash caused by two Blues penalties in the last two minutes.
“I felt like our intensity when the game was on the line and our attack mentality was probably better than it was at times during the game,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “But at the same time, I thought we created lots of chances. Enough chances to win.”
After Colorado (8-5-1) cleared the net to upgrade from 5-on-3 to 6-on-3 in the final minute, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar missed the net. A four-game winning streak came to an end despite the kind of end-to-end action that usually favors the Avalanche.
It was also the kind of onslaught Colorado produced throughout last season’s six-game playoff win against St. Louis, a team that is currently trying to climb out of the division cellar after a startling eight-game losing streak. Now the rival Blues have won three in a row.
The way this one went down stings a little extra for the Avalanche; Binnington is persona non grata in Ball Arena after throwing a water bottle at former Colorado forward Nazem Kadri during that series.
“Their goalie made some saves,” Bednar said. “We missed a few opportunities. It is what it is.”
The Blues benefitted from puck luck on their game-tying and go-ahead goals late in the second period. Robert Thomas clanked a shot off the crossbar that landed in the crease before sliding in off the skate of Avalanche goalie Alexandar Georgiev. Then with 1:01 remaining, Brandon Saad flung a centering pass that bounced off Makar’s stick and over Georgiev’s left skate at the near post. It leaked an inch across the goal line.
“It’s hockey,” Makar said. “You can’t have every bounce. Unfortunately they got the lucky one tonight, and hopefully we get it back at some point.”
To top things off, the period ended disastrously with a questionable interference penalty called on Mikko Rantanen with 1.4 seconds left. The Blues capitalized 13 seconds into the third for a 3-1 lead.
“I didn’t love it,” Bednar said. “I think that pick happens a lot. The guy gets taken out of the play because he runs into (Avalanche center J.T. Compher), who’s falling. I don’t think it was necessarily Mikko interference. … It happens all the time.”
The Avs couldn’t quite recover from that in a tight battle in which it felt like recent over-reliance on star players finally caught up with them.
Rantanen and MacKinnon have combined for 30 points in the last six games. During that stretch, they accounted for 43.5% of the Avalanche’s individual points, and at least one of them has scored or assisted on 20 of 26 goals (76.9%).
The reason Hunt was on the ice so much in the third was a demotion to second-line left wing Alex Newhook, whose ice time declined dramatically. Bednar liked Hunt’s performance, but the mid-game change spoke to a theme as the injury-plagued Avs search for production beyond their top line and league-leading power play.
“Just not playing up to the standard I have set for him tonight,” Bednar said of Newhook. ” … He’ll produce if he gets his game in order. Too many turnovers tonight. Not skating and attacking. Spreading his legs when he needs to skate. You’re not going to create offense in this league if you’re not skating.”
