Preseason Recap: Avs secure first win of preseason in Vegas

What happens in Vegas, doesn’t stay in Vegas – a W!

Hang the banner! The Colorado Avalanche have won a preseason game!

All jokes aside, the Avs contained the pressure from the Vegas Golden Knights to wrap up a 3-1 win on the strip on Thursday night. It’s the first one of the preseason, with one more to go before the real deal begins.

The roster is starting to shape up with what we’ll see in less than a week against this same Vegas team for Opening Night. With the result, it’s nice to see the roster seemingly come together and get results along the way. Onto the recap!

First Period

Colorado came out flying to open the game. Cal Ritchie, lined up with Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin had a great tap-in chance, but Ilya Samsonov broke up the initial pass. He also had a couple of chances after linking up with MacKinnon on a rush but was denied again.

Ivan Ivan had an open-net chance too which was also stopped. But it didn’t take long for the Avs to finally break through from Drouin and MacKinnon coming together, thanks to Ritchie’s ability to break the puck out from the boards to lead the rush.

Brett Howden cross-checked Devon Toews in the final two minutes leading to the first power play of the game, where Casey Mittelstadt found the iron. Colorado led in shots 13-6 going into the break and were unlucky to only be up by one goal.

Second Period

After both teams traded penalties in the opening 10 seconds of the period, Colorado would continue to keep its foot on the gas. Sam Malinski would be the next one to capitalize, as he precisely drilled a puck through traffic to find twine and double the lead.

His team led in shots 18-9 at the midway point, but Vegas found another gear. Colorado wouldn’t record a shot for over 10 minutes and bring Justus Annunen more into the game.

Eventually, the Golden Knights would make the visiting team pay. Oliver Kylington’s holding penalty led to Jack Eichel rifling one top corner to cut the lead in half with 20 minutes remaining.

Third Period

The Avs would be put on the back foot early, with Logan O’Connor tossing the puck over the glass for a delay of game call. A sleuth of chances from Vegas would be thrown to the crease, but Annunen would stand tall for all of them.

From there, Colorado continued to play a defensive road third period, shutting down the Golden Knights. Through the midway point of the period, they held the home team to no shots on goal for the final 13 minutes.

O’Connor would redeem his penalty from the start of the period with a backhanded empty netter from the neutral zone. It would ice the game and the first win of the preseason for the Avs by the score of 3-1.

Takeaways

In the first period, it would be Colorado’s first line which would be fun to watch. Getting to see Ritchie connect with NHL-level players and create chances paid off, as he assisted on Drouin’s goal to open the game. The same can be said about Ivan and Malinski, who also chipped in with the latter of the two scoring the game-winner. But, everybody took a step back and took their foot off the gas to give Vegas a chance. It wasn’t outstanding for any of the skaters, but was good to see the team finally get some chemistry together and look like a capable NHL roster with the win.

If there was any outstanding player, it would have to be Annunen. While he only faced nine shots in the first half hour, he was bombarded with plenty to end it. Particularly in the middle frame and start of the third, he stood on his head to bail out his defenders and keep it a one-score game. There was ultimately nothing he could do on Eichel’s power-play goal, but he deserves his flowers. He had a similar performance last preseason against the Dallas Stars which some folks thought earned him the backup role. It wasn’t the case last year, but perhaps this performance can show Jared Bednar he doesn’t need to look elsewhere for his backup.

Upcoming

One final preseason game is ahead against the Utah Hockey Club, at the Maverick Center, home of the ECHL affiliate for the Avs, the Utah Grizzlies. Puck drop on Saturday night is at 5:00 p.m. MT.