It wasn’t pretty, but the Colorado Avalanche found a way to come away with the Game 2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes with a late third period tally from Avs forward André Burakovsky. With the victory, the Avalanche take a 2-0 series lead and have the opportunity to increase their series lead Saturday at 1 p.m.
Compared to Game One, this was a completely different looking Coyotes squad right from the opening faceoff. They were in your face and constantly held a two-man forecheck that seemed to catch the Avalanche off-guard. However, good playoff teams find a way to win, and that is exactly what the Avalanche were able to do.
After being held without a shot, but finishing Game One with two assists, Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon tallied his first goal of the series, as he just seemed to be all over the ice. Tyson Jost tallied a goal of his own, and Phillipp Grubauer made 30 saves to help the Avalanche come away with the victory and extend their series lead over the Coyotes.
“Nobody feels like they have to dominate,” said MacKinnon, who had two assists in Game One. “We’re all trying to chip in. We have such a deep team and we’re ready, hopefully, for a long run. To do that, we need all four lines to be going and they were today.”
Clayton Keller and Michael Grabner scored for the Coyotes, while Coyotes goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves for the Coyotes.
Avalanche forward Vladislav Namestnikov left the game late in the third period after a collision with MacKinnon and is not deemed day-to-day by Avs head coach Jared Bednar. Joonas Donskoi is also considered day-to-day for the Avalanche.
After a lopsided Game One and a tightly contested Game Two, we can make bets that the Avalanche can expect more of the same style of play from the Coyotes that they saw today. Expect another tightly contested style of game on Saturday.