*Photo from AP News*
In overtime, Gabe Landeskog always delivers. Brandon Saad scored his 9th goal of the season, Landeskog added the winner, and the Colorado Avalanche beat out the Arizona Coyotes with a 2-1 overtime win on Wednesday night.
Saad started the scoring for the Avalanche 1:23 into the first, giving the Avalanche a 1-0 lead early on. It remained that way until 18:05 into the second period, when Tyler Pitlick tied things up for the Coyotes with his 6th goal of the season. It stayed that way until overtime, when Landeskog scored with 38 seconds to go in OT to give Colorado the win.
Landeskog said of the tight win that "It's hard not to get frustrated in a game like this. Going into the third sometimes you feel like you should be up three or four goals, but you look at the scoreboard and it's tied at one. But Raanta had a good night, and he was seeing everything. They are a competitive team. It is close in the standings and we can't expect to get any easy games moving forward. But nonetheless, I am proud of the way we worked tonight and stuck with it."
Philipp Grubauer got the start for the Avalanche, and thanks to strong defensive work, didn't have to do too much. Grubauer saved 13 shots out of the 14 that came his way throughout the game. With the win, Grubauer's record increased to 13-7-0 on the season, while the Avalanche have a 14-8-2 record, good for 4th place in the NHL's West Division.
Avs coach Jared Bednar said of the strong defense that "I thought it was great. Great commitment, great effort. Good reads, closing quick. There wasn't many reads we were wrong on or slow on, and it just so happens that they got their one goal when we were. We just gave them a little bit too much time to be able to get his eyes up and find a guy streaking to the net on the backdoor. Even though Tyson Jost is doing the right thing trying to seal him out and keep him off the net, it just hits him and goes in."
Antti Raanta was the starting goalie for the Coyotes with Darcy Kumper injured, and did a fantastic job despite the loss, saving a whopping 44 shots out of 46 that came his way. Raanta's record is now 4-2-2 this season, and the Coyotes now have a 12-10-4 record this year, 6th in the West Division.
Pitlick said of Raanta's stellar game that "We don't get any points without Raants. It had a lot to do with Raants tonight. We hung in there. Raants made some big saves. We've got to get more shots if we want to win the game. But yeah, we hung in there and Raants played great. We need to get some points that are (the result of) a better overall team game, team wins. But to get points is huge, and we'll take some dirty ones here and there."
The Avalanche host the Los Angeles Kings on Friday, with Grubauer likely to be the starter again. The Coyotes travel to face the Minnesota Wild on Friday, with Raanta slated to start.
Comments
Post a Comment