Makar’s Return Has Immediate Impact In Avs’ Victory

The Colorado Avalanche battled the Arizona Coyotes last night, who are down but not exactly out. They may be nearly eliminated from the playoffs, but they are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games.

The Avalanche are seeing the return of two defensemen to their lineup, Cale Makar (missed 3 games) and Erik Johnson (missed 19 games). Having both will give the Avalanche some mobility and weight to throw around the ice. Makar had an immediate impact in his return with a three-point night. 

First Period 

The first period saw Nathan MacKinnon extend his point streak to 19-straight home games with an early power-play goal. The play started with a corner battle that Valeri Nichushkin won and got it up to Makar on the point. MacKinnon wristed a hard shot past the glove of goaltender Karel Vejmelka.

With about one minute left in the period, Samuel Girard tried to extend the lead for the Avs with a shot that never quite made its way through to Vejmelka.  J.J. Moser recovered the puck for the Coyotes and threw it off the boards to Nick Schmaltz, who sped into the Colorado zone and sent a behind-the-back pass to Clayton Keller for the backhand shot over the pads of goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, evening the score at one apiece.

Second Period 

The period did not see much other than one penalty by Mikko Rantanen as the two teams failed to score in the second. The Avalanche had back-to-back breakaway chances from Andrew Cogliano and Nichushkin during the penalty kill that began to swing the momentum in Colorado’s favor. The Avs’ best chance, however, came earlier when Makar nearly snuck a wraparound attempt past the outstretched pad of Vejmelka but the Coyotes netminder was just able to keep it out with the toe of his skate. 

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Third Period

The momentum built late in the second period carried over for the Avalanche into the third period.

About seven minutes into the period, Nichushkin gathered a loose puck behind the net and tapped it to MacKinnon on the hash marks. MacKinnon snapped it to Makar on the point and he whipped it in with a Rantanen screen, breaking the 1-1 tie. Five minutes later and on the power play, the same sequence happened. MacKinnon passed to Makar and he fired a shot from the same spot, only this time J.T. Compher was providing the screen. Compher gathered the rebound and chipped it in to make it 3-1.

Conclusion

The Coyotes gave the Avalanche a little more fight than expected. Last night, it took patience for the Avalanche to beat the Coyotes, which they do not always have. Colorado had to wait for Arizona to make a mistake, which they eventually did in the third period. In addition, the Avs played a very clean and disciplined game, tallying just the two penalty minutes in the second.

Colorado will have to play this same brand of hockey on Sunday as they take on the Coyotes once more, this time in Arizona.