Colorado Avalanche don’t even bring ‘B-game’ to Boston, fall to Bruins
Since the middle of October, the Colorado Avalanche haven’t been badly outplayed often. It happened Monday in Boston, where the Bruins took out the league’s top team, 5-1.
“It wasn’t our A-game. It wasn’t even our B-game,” Colorado winger Gabriel Landeskog said.
“At the end of the day, sometimes you have bad games or tough games, but I’m not going to blow this out of proportion. It wasn’t our best and it wasn’t good enough to win. We’ll learn from it, get better and bounce back.”
Goaltender Darcy Kuemper’s franchise-record streak for consecutive decisions with a point ended at 18 (16-0-2). He made 40 saves in Boston, but tied his season high with five goals allowed. It’s the fourth time that’s happened.
The Avalanche were outshot 21-9 in the first period and 45-29 overall.
“I just thought they were the quicker, more determined team tonight,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “Aside from our top line, I just didn’t think we had a lot of guys going that were able to accomplish any O-zone time or scoring chances.
“They had a really good night – ours, not so much. That’s what happens.”
Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon scored his 12th goal and fourth power-play goal of the season to make it 2-1 near the game’s midway point. The comeback sputtered quickly as David Pastrnak sent a slap shot past Kuemper for his second of the game about a minute and a half later.
The second period got away from the Avalanche when Boston’s Charlie McAvoy picked off a pass at the blue line. The overly eager defense had left Jake DeBrusk alone with Kuemper. As the final “whoop” from the previous goal announcement rang out, DeBrusk made it 4-1.
“At that point, we were going to have to have a really good third period to win,” Bednar said. “We didn’t.”
Charlie Coyle added a Bruins power-play goal for the final score. The Colorado penalty kill was 2-for-3.
Bruins defenseman and Colorado Springs native Brandon Carlo, who trailed only McAvoy in ice time among Boston skaters (20:41) and was plus-2, picked up an assist on Pastrnak’s second goal.
The Avalanche’s four-game road swing ends Wednesday in Detroit.
“At the end of the day, we know we’re a better team than we showed tonight, and we’ll get back on track here on Wednesday,” Landeskog said.
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