Division title hopes dwindle after Golden Knights thump Avs

After 10 seconds, it was obvious that the Colorado Avalanche were in trouble. That’s how long it took for the Vegas Golden Knights to score their first goal, as William Karlsson found himself in a nearly instantaneous breakaway and slid the puck past Avalanche goalie Devan Dubnyk.

The Avalanche tied the game at one 13 minutes later as Devon Toews scored his seventh goal of the year off an assist from Carl Soderberg, but when the second period started, it was time for Max Pacioretty to shine. The veteran Vegas forward punched in a power-play goal and assisted on Mark Stone’s tally to take a 3-1 lead that would hold up as the game-winner.

Though the Avalanche’s Ryan Graves scored near the end of the second period, Pacioretty potted his 24th goal of the season only 55 seconds into the third period. An empty-netter by Jonathan Marchessault provided the final score.

The loss was a potentially disastrous one for the Avalanche, who fell six points behind Vegas with only nine games to play; one of which will be the final matchup against the Golden Knights in what will loom as a must-win game on May 10.

***

NEXT UP: Avalanche (31-12-4, 66 pts) vs. Sharks (20-24-5, 45 pts) | Friday, Apr. 30 at 7:00 p.m.

***

NOTES

• Wednesday’s loss marked the Avalanche’s first three-game losing streak of the season.

• Philipp Grubauer may be ready to return to the net on Friday, and the timing couldn’t be better. In the Avs’ three-game losing streak, the goaltender tandem of Devan Dubnyk and Jonas Johannson have gone 0-3-0 with a disastrous .837 save percentage. Head coach Jared Bednar didn’t mince words about Dubnyk’s performance after Wednesday’s loss. “I’d like to see him have two of the first three (goals stopped),” Bednar said. “The penalty kill goal can’t go in. He has eyes (on it) and it goes through him… It wasn’t a great night for him.”

• Nathan MacKinnon extended his points streak to 15 games when he assisted on Devon Toews’ first-period goal. 15 games is not only MacKinnon’s new career-high, it’s the best such streak for the Avalanche since Paul Stastny’s franchise-record 20 games in 2006-07.

• Though the Avs outshot the Golden Knights by a wide margin (37-to-26), they couldn’t solve Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who had 35 saves and rarely looked bothered by Colorado’s vaunted attack. “Fleury was probably the difference-maker tonight,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said.

• The Avalanche moved to 0-8-0 when trailing after two periods.

• Devon Toews’ seventh goal of the season set a new career-high, besting his six with the Islanders in the abbreviated 2019-20 season. He leads all Colorado defenders in plus-minus with plus-23, and his addition to the Avalanche has proved to be one of general manager Joe Sakic’s more savvy moves.

***

THE FINAL WORD

“We have the opportunity to go home and then turn things around against San Jose. We’ll get some reinforcements back in the lineup; should have some guys back in and healthy. It will change the dynamic of our team.” — Head coach Jared Bednar. The Avalanche should have starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer and top goal-scorer Mikko Rantanen back as soon as Friday.

***

LAST NIGHT’S LINES

FORWARDS
Top Line: LW Gabriel Landeskog, C Nathan MacKinnon, RW Andre Burakovsky
Second Line: LW Tyson Jost, C Nazem Kadri, RW Valeri Nichushkin
Third Line: LW Carl Soderberg, C J.T. Compher, RW Kiefer Sherwood
Fourth Line: LW Liam O’Brien, C Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, RW Martin Kaut

DEFENSEMEN
Top Pair: LD Samuel Girard, RD Devon Toews
Second Pair: LD Ryan Graves, RD Cale Makar
Third Pair: LD Patrik Nemeth, RD Conor Timmins

GOALTENDER
Starter: Devan Dubnyk

***

INJURY WATCH

• Brandon Saad (lower-body injury) was injured on Apr. 24 and is expected to miss two-to-four weeks.
• Mikko Rantanen (COVID-19 protocol) missed the Apr. 21 game and his return date is uncertain. Rantanen was removed from the COVID-19 list on Apr. 26.
• Joonas Donskoi (COVID-19 protocol) was placed on the list on Apr. 16, but could return before the end of April. Donskoi was removed from the COVID-19 list on Apr. 26.
• Philipp Grubauer (COVID-19 protocol) will miss “more than 14 days,” according to head coach Jared Bednar on Apr. 14. He is expected to return around May 1.
• Bowen Byram (upper-body injury) will be out until at least early May after suffering a setback.
• Logan O’Connor (lower-body injury) was placed on injured reserve on Apr. 2. He is expected to be out indefinitely, but it would be a surprise if he returned this 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.

***

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. Follow him on Twitter at @sdrotar.

Related

Shedeur Sanders won’t be the Week 1 starter for the BrownsBroncos star CB Pat Surtain II again voted a top-10 player in the NFLThe illusion that the Nuggets are a contender won’t survive the playoffsESPN gives Nuggets solid grade for DeMar DeRozan signingRockies lose ninth-straight at home, conclude 0-6 homestandJoe Sakic ‘confident’ Avs will reach deal with Cale Makar, ‘not really worried about it’