To begin their final road trip of the regular season, the Colorado Avalanche traveled to a rematch against the Columbus Blue Jackets, whom they defeated a few weeks ago. The exact opposite happened in this game, as Columbus kept Colorado out of the net and won 4-1.
game
Those hoping for fireworks in the first period were disappointed as the game remained scoreless for 20 minutes. Each team got 4-on-4 time on overlapping power plays, but the result was empty. The Avalanche shot 7-for-12, almost twice as many as Columbus, but the visitors needed a few better scoring chances to break open the game.
After another sleepy start to the period, it was the Blue Jackets who broke through in the second frame. Kirill Marchenko slipped the puck into Justus Anunen's 5-hole at 9:35, taking the lead at the halfway mark. It wasn't enough for the Avalanche to wake up, however, as Columbus scored its next goal off an Alex Nylander rush at 14:12.
At least the Avalanche could have theoretically turned the momentum back on a late power play, but instead the Blue Jackets got another point from Nylander with just under two minutes left. After two periods of play, Columbus built a 3-0 lead. The Avalanche have won quite a few games recently, but can they do it again?
The third period started with another futile power play, but it took a great tip and bounce from Chris Wagner to finally get the Burgundians on the board at 4:39. The fourth power play failed to get the Avalanche on the board, and time began to wind down. Anunen was pulled by an extra attacker with about three minutes left, and Colorado allowed Cole Schillinger to score his fourth and final goal into an empty cage at 18:27. Despite having 47 shots on net, the Avalanche lost 4-1 against Columbus.
Take-out
This was clearly a game where an ineffective power play would have cost the Avalanche a victory. Despite being down 47-25, Columbus kept Colorado on the perimeter and didn't collapse as much as they did in Denver. The combination of these two elements of his caused the Avalanche offense to go off the rails. They were lucky not to be shut out with the only goal coming from the unlikeliest Chris Wagner.
Speaking of which, Yakov Trenin was a surprise scratch for some unknown reason and no one knows where Joel Kiviranta is, which led to Chris Wagner being recalled and added to tonight's lineup. Jean-Luc Foudy theoretically played as well, but he only took six shifts (half the first period), so did he really play?
Despite manager Jared Bednar's talk about Anunen's plans to start, it's a little hard to believe that the young goaltender was going to start more than Alexander Georgiev this week given the back-to-back games coming up. . In any case, this was a bit of a treat for Anunen, but his former team was not up to the task of giving him another win. Anunen himself wasn't as sharp as he used to be.
Future plans
Back-to-back games at the Minnesota Wild begin on Thursday, April 4th at 6pm MT.
