Nights like this from Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen shouldn’t be taken for granted. Nor should they be squandered.
Makar had a three-point second period and Rantanen made arguably his two best passes of the season, but the Avalanche blew a 4-2 third-period lead in a 5-4 shootout loss to Los Angeles on Thursday night, only keeping one point after two seemed attainable.
Adrian Kempe’s shootout goal ended Colorado’s nine-game win streak against the Kings. Rantanen and Evan Rodrigues were unable to score in the shootout, and Alexandar Georgiev allowed two goals on three attempts after only saving 23 of 27 shots.
Sean Walker scored with 5:40 remaining in regulation to tie it, and the Avs (19-12-3) couldn’t convert a power play opportunity in the last three minutes. This was the fourth consecutive game at Ball Arena that has required overtime. The home team had managed to escape the first three.
“I thought we played a good enough game,” said Avalanche forward Andrew Cogliano, who scored one of the team’s four goals in the second. “I think it’s just a frustrating game. And obviously the situational play tonight wasn’t good enough. Two power plays against. Goal with five minutes left, and that’s the game.”
The Avalanche’s recent pattern of slow starts continued when Gabriel Vilardi flicked a shot from the faceoff circle past Alexandar Georgiev. Colorado had a chance to erase the early gap with a man advantage late in the first period, but the best scoring chance of the power play belonged to Los Angeles. Shots were 12-7 Kings at the break.
The Avs haven’t led at first intermission since Dec. 10 vs. the Rangers. In nine games since then, they’ve been outscored 8-1 in the first period. Stretching back 15 games, they have been outscored 15-4 in the opening frame, only leading once at first intermission. This time, “I didn’t hate the start,” coach Jared Bednar said, “but I didn’t love it, either.”
“Just not prepared, I think, at the end of the day,” Cogliano said of the slow starts. “Not prepared to start how we need to start in terms of individually. … It’s nothing to do with the game plan. We know what to do. We know the execution that needs to be in place. But at some point you need to just go do it as a player, as an individual. And we haven’t done that recently.”
But the second period in those last nine games? The Avs have outscored opponents 11-5. They scored all four against the Kings in the second, each goal seemingly more highlight-worthy than the last.
Fantastic forechecking by Devon Toews kept Colorado in the offensive zone during a power play long enough for Rodrigues and Rantanen to play tic-tac-toe with the puck, navigating it to J.T. Compher for the easiest finish of his life. After Los Angeles reclaimed the lead, Cogliano raised eyebrows with a confident finish on the rush.
Then 45 seconds later, Makar intercepted a Los Angeles pass, carried into the zone and deposited his own wrister to give Colorado its first lead. When he and Rantanen set up a Rodrigues goal another two minutes later, the Avs had scored on three consecutive shots. It was the Avalanche’s 100th goal of the season.
Rantanen had scored or assisted 45 of them, making him easily the hero of the injury-plagued season so far. But Makar has quietly kept a point-per-game pace behind him. After this, he has 34 points in as many games.
“Loved him,” Bednar said. “Second period, really got going. Third period was good again. I thought he was a big difference-maker for us tonight.”
The best scoring chance of overtime was on Makar’s stick, too, but he couldn’t quite clean up his own rebound with an empty corner of the net.
The moments that became accentuated in defeat were those missed opportunities and occasional blunders, rather than the dazzling moments of chemistry. To Cogliano, what stood out was his penalty-killing error that allowed the Kings to chop Colorado’s lead in half.
“I made a stupid play, just flicking the puck nowhere, and they get a power play goal,” he said. “And then they’re just down one goal.”
