Compher’s hat trick leads Avs in romp, sets up crucial season finale
May 13, 2021, 6:18 AM
J.T. Compher couldn’t have picked a better night for his multi-goal game of the season. Needing to win to keep pace with the Vegas Golden Knights and keep their division title and Presidents’ Trophy hopes alive, Compher lit the lamp three times for his first career hat trick as the Avalanche cruised to an easy, 6-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
Compher’s scored in the last four games, giving the high-powered Avalanche a little more scoring punch on their bottom two lines.
“It’s good for the confidence to see them go in, especially in an important time of the season,” Compher said. “I pride myself on playing big in big games, and I want to be a big part of the run this year.
There won’t be a bigger game than Thursday’s regular-season finale.
With Vegas’ season complete, a win by the Avalanche will give them the West Division’s crown and claim the Avalanche’s third President’s Trophy, given to the team with the league’s best record. With that comes home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs for as long as the Avalanche remain in them. The Avalanche are 15-0-1 in their last 16 home games; one reason why the notion of winning the Presidents’ Trophy — and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs — is so enticing.
“I think our goal from training camp was to win the league, and win the Presidents’ Trophy to make sure we had home ice all the way through the playoffs,” said captain Gabriel Landeskog, who scored a goal of his own on Wednesday. “(We’ve) put ourselves in a position to win a hockey game tomorrow to do that. It would be a big step in the right direction — and then take on the next challenge after that.”
It’s surprising, then, that head coach Jared Bednar announced after the win that backup goaltender Jonas Johansson will be in net rather than Philipp Grubauer, who manned the goal in the Avs’ shutout on Wednesday night.
“J.J. is ready to go for tomorrow, and if we play the way we can play in front of him, we’ll give ourselves a good chance to win,” Bednar explained. “(Johansson) did a nice job in L.A. getting us the victory (on May 8), and we need to make sure these guys are sharp going into the playoffs.”
It’s a calculated risk, to be sure. Though Johansson (4-1-1, 2.23 GAA) has played well, there’s no question that he’s not nearly as steady as Grubauer, and with Nathan MacKinnon expected to miss the game out of an abundance of caution, as well, the Avs will need the kind of scoring that they got in Wednesday’s win as opposed to their previous two games against the Kings; both one-goal Colorado victories.
The Avalanche’s destiny is entirely in their hands; an enviable position, to be sure — but they can’t afford to fail in their gambit on Thursday.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown… the regular-season one, at least.
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NEXT UP: Avalanche (38-13-4, 80 pts) vs. Kings (21-27-7, 49 pts) | Thursday, May 13 at 7:00 p.m. | TV: ESPN+
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NOTES
• Don’t expect Nathan MacKinnon to play in the regular-season finale Thursday. MacKinnon sat out Wednesday night after Jared Bednar indicated earlier in the day that MacKinnon’s next game would come in the Stanley Cup playoffs. “He’s day-to-day. He got dinged up in the Vegas game. Unrelated to the injury that he had in his previous two games, so at this point, we’re just trying to get him ready for the playoffs. He’s unable to play tonight, and hopefully he’s good and healthy and ready to go for Game 1 of the playoffs.”
• Gabriel Landeskog’s goal was a historic one. The goal, his 20th of this campaign, means that Landeskog has reached that mark for the eighth season, trailing only Joe Sakic and Milan Hedjuk’s 11 seasons with 20 or more in Avalanche history. Moreover, that goal was the 218th of Landeskog’s career, passing Peter Forsberg for sixth place on Colorado’s all-time goal-scoring list.
• Samuel Girard returned after missing six games with a lower-body injury. Girard had an assist, three shots and a plus-one on the night, which also happened to be his 23rd birthday.
• Philipp Grubauer’s seventh shutout of the season tied him for the NHL lead with the man that he split time in the Avs’ net with last season: Semyon Varlamov, now with the New York Islanders.
• Wednesday’s game marked the seventh time this season that the Avs have scored six or more points in a game.
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THE FINAL WORD
“J.T. Compher had himself a night, and it turned out to be a good victory for us. We’ll put it away and move on for tomorrow.” — Head coach Jared Bednar, on Compher’s first career hat trick.
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LAST NIGHT’S LINES
FORWARDS
Top Line: LW Gabriel Landeskog, C Tyson Jost, RW Mikko Rantanen
Second Line: LW Andre Burakovsky, C Nazem Kadri, RW Joonas Donskoi
Third Line: LW Alex Newhook, C Valeri Nichushkin, RW J.T. Compher
Fourth Line: LW Kiefer Sherwood, C Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, RW Jayson Megna
DEFENSEMEN
Top Pair: LD Devon Toews, RD Cale Makar
Second Pair: LD Ryan Graves, RD Samuel Girard
Third Pair: LD Patrik Nemeth, RD Conor Timmins
GOALTENDER
Starter: Philipp Grubauer
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INJURY WATCH
• Devan Dubnyk (COVID-19 protocol) tested positive for the virus and is out from May 3 until at least May 17.
• Brandon Saad (lower-body injury) was injured on Apr. 24 and is expected to miss two-to-four weeks. He is not expected to be ready for at least the first game of the first round of the playoffs.
• Bowen Byram (upper-body injury) will be out until at least mid-May after suffering a setback.
• Logan O’Connor (lower-body injury) was placed on injured reserve on Apr. 2. He has surgery, and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
• Matt Calvert (upper-body injury) missed the Mar. 31 game and was placed on the injured reserve list on Apr. 11.
• Dennis Gilbert (facial injury, COVID-19 protocol) was placed on injured reserve on Feb. 20. He is expected to be out until at least late March.
• Erik Johnson (upper-body injury) left the Jan. 30 game and has no projected return date. On March 25, coach Jared Bednar suggested that it was possible that Johnson could miss the remainder of the season.
• Pavel Francouz (hip) has yet to play this season and remains on injured reserve. On Apr. 12, the Avalanche ruled him out for the rest of the season following hip surgery.
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Shawn Drotar is the host of “The Fan Late Night with Shawn Drotar;” weeknights from 10:00 p.m. to midnight — only on 104.3 The Fan
