Recap: Avalanche winless at Rookie Faceoff

Avalanche rookies got swept but there were some positives.

A squad of Colorado Avalanche rookies defended on Los Angeles to play a three-game set against their west coast foes for the Rookie Faceoff. While they didn’t earn any wins there were several nice goals scored and encouraging performances to take note of.

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Game One featured the Avalanche hopefuls against the Anahiem Ducks in their very orange new uniforms. Colorado rallied in the third period but fell 4-3 in the contest. Top prospect Calum Ritchie unfortunately didn’t get to face his Oshawa teammate and Ducks’ 2024 third overall pick Beckett Sennecke who was out with injury but had a good showing of his own picking up an assist on each Avalanche goal.

To open the scoring, Jason Polin was the beneficiary of the first assist from Ritchie, which was a pass feathered beautifully across the ice on the power play. Ritchie used his keen vision and patience with the puck to draw the penalty killers to him before dishing the pass to Polin. Sean Behrens also got the play started quarterbacking up top for a perfect prospect tally.

For the second goal it was a pretty simple bang bang play as Ritchie won the faceoff and Oskar Olausson quickly pounced on the puck to get the Avalanche back on the board.

New Avalanche prospect Max Curran scored the third and final goal on a nice carry and feed from Ivan Ivan. Ritchie appears to have possibly picked up a secondary assist passing to Ivan before changing. Having a hand in each goal was a very successful first game for Colorado’s top center prospect.

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Game Two against the rookies of the Seattle Kraken featured a different lineup and inserted some players who didn’t get into the first match. Matt Stienburg and Ondrej Pavel gave a more physical element with Stienburg even getting into a fight for good measure. However with Ritchie, Olausson and Behrens all sitting out the contest there was a noticeable lack of dynamic skill.

Still, the Avalanche managed to put a goal on the board featuring some of the better offensive players dressed for the match. It was another successful power play marker as Ivan Ivan and Max Curran made the play in which Jason Polin finished. Unfortunately the final score was 5-1 in favor of Seattle and the Avalanche had some trouble generating offense but were able to get an energetic push going in the third period.

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Game Three featured a more robust Avalanche lineup again and the fireworks showed up early as Ritchie crafted another glorious cross-ice pass for a power play goal. This time Matt Stienburg was the beneficiary of a wide open look in which he buried. The Avalanche rookies added to their lead to make it 2-0 but that’s where the trouble began.

The penalties started coming fast and furious and San Jose climbed back into the contest. Colorado goaltender Adam Scheel vacated his net to stop a breakaway chance and missed leaving the cage wide open as the Sharks tied the game at 2-2. From there the Sharks converted on multiple 5-on-3 chances. The Avalanche got one back in the third period but the final score was 6-3 in favor of San Jose. Considering the Sharks dressed ten forwards and eight defensemen with their top prospects missing it was a missed opportunity for Colorado.

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Wins aren’t really the objective in this rookie tournament setting without even a winning team declared at the end. The important part is the relevant prospects showing well and they did. Calum Ritchie’s masterful passing was on display, particularly on the power play. It is not easy to create a cohesive man advantage in such as short amount of time with a majority of players who had never played together before. Sean Behrens, Oskar Olausson, Ivan Ivan and Max Curran all had positive moments and hit the scoresheet as well. It was a successful tune-up before Avalanche camp begins on Thursday.