Varlamov's 37 saves help Avs top Coyotes
The official game recap Nashville Predators vs Colorado Avalanche. Semyon Varlamov made 37 saves, and Matt Duchene and Mikhail Grigorenko each had a goal and an assist to help the Colorado Avalanche defeat the Arizona Coyotes 3-1 at Pepsi Center on Monday.
The Coyotes had a two-man advantage for the final 1:34 of the third period after Gabriel Landeskog was penalized for tripping Michael Stone with Arizona goalie Louis Domingue off for an extra skater.
The Avalanche (34-30-4), who lost three of their previous four games, tied the Minnesota Wild with 72 points, but the Wild have played one fewer game and hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
The Coyotes (28-32-6) have lost nine consecutive road games and eight of their past nine overall.
Arizona played most of the third period without defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who sustained an upper-body injury at 3:19 and didn't return.
Grigorenko gave the Avalanche some breathing room with a goal for a 3-0 lead at 5:37 of the third period. Grigorenko put a backhand past Domingue's stick during a goal-mouth scramble for his fifth goal of the season and first in 13 games.
The Coyotes drew within 3-1 at 8:07 on Boyd Gordon's first goal. Sergei Plotnikov was at the side of the net when he passed in front to Gordon, who scored while being checked by Jarome Iginla. Gordon played in his second game after missing the previous 13 because of an upper-body injury.
Duchene scored his NHL career-high 28th goal at 5:40 of the second period on a power play to give the Avalanche a 2-0 lead. He accepted a return pass from Blake Comeau and put a shot by Domingue's right arm. The goal came with one second left on Plotnikov's penalty for hooking Tyson Barrie.
The Avalanche killed John Mitchell's cross-checking penalty that began less than two minutes later, running their streak to 18 in a row covering parts of six games. They've killed 28 of 29 covering parts of 10 games.
Varlamov stopped Tobias Rieder on a breakaway at 11:30 to maintain the two-goal lead.
The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead in a fast-paced first period on a goal by Shawn Matthias at 9:17. Carl Soderberg was in the left corner when he passed to Francois Beauchemin for a shot that Domingue stopped, but the puck popped over his left shoulder into the crease. Matthias slid along the ice to poke it into the net for his eighth goal.
Varlamov, seeking his first win since Feb. 17, made two saves against Martin Hanzal in the opening minute of the first period and a glove save against him at 11:15 on a Coyotes power play. He made a pad save on a driving Antoine Vermette at 18:30.
Domingue stopped Soderberg's backhand at 1:45 and he denied Nathan MacKinnon on a breakaway at 5:08 after the Avalanche center stole the puck from Stone.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
08/03/2016 - 06:30
