Recap: Capitals down high hopes of Avalanche with road win

The new-look Avs couldn’t quite put it all together.

Unfortunately for all the returners to the lineup for the Colorado Avalanche, it wasn’t meant to be on Friday night. The Avs fell 5-2 to the visiting Washington Capitals to end their four-game home stand.

Colorado continues to be even at .500, now at 9-9 before hitting the road. They’ll see these same Caps in six days and surely will take some lessons from this loss to the nation’s capital. Here’s how it all went down.

First Period

Colorado got started early with the scoring. But, it was not from any of the star power forwards or new guys entering the lineup. Instead, it was Parker Kelly sneaking one in with his shot from the far circle.

But it was about all the offense the Avs had in the period. With Connor McMichael hitting the iron, it was the start of several chances for Washington. Calvin de Haan’s tripping penalty led to a blast from the point by Jakub Vrana evening the score.

Just moments later, the Caps would capitalize again. McMichael did not find the iron this time, but rather the twine. His hot start to the season continued with his 11th goal of the season, and a 2-1 lead.

Pierre-Luc Dubois nearly scored a third but Justus Annunen did enough to fight off his chance on a 2-on-1 for his first save of the game. After killing off a Casey Mittelstadt tripping penalty, the Avs got a power play themselves when Josh Manson was hooked by Andrew Mangiapane which carried over to the second period.

Second Period

The Avs couldn’t do anything with its power play and instead gave up another. Sam Girard gave up a bad turnover in his own zone, to the red-hot McMichael for his second of the game.

This would be the end of the night for Annunen, as Trent Miner came into the game for his NHL debut. Luckily, he’d only have to worry about a one-goal lead for a little bit, as Nikolai Kovalenko tallied his third career goal on a backhander in front.

But the one-goal lead didn’t last long. Jacob Chychrun found lots of space alone in the slot and rifled one top corner past Miner to double the lead.

For the next 10 minutes, the Avs didn’t even register a shot on net. Casey Mittelstadt and Jonathan Drouin nearly connected for a nice scoring chance down low, but Drouin’s shot sailed high into the netting.

Cale Makar finally ended the shotless streak, as Charlie Lindgren just did enough to force his shot off the post. Makar threatened again in the closing seconds, but it went right into his glove. Hence, down two with 20 minutes to go, a lot of work needed to be done for Colorado to get back into this one.

Third Period

Makar got an early chance walking in alone but somehow missed the net with his great chance. It was the start of a couple of decent looks the Avs finally got from its top lines, but they never had anything super threatening. Nichushkin also had a nice rush chance, but didn’t find the net.

For the rest of the frame, the Caps shut things down and played a very good road period while maintaining its two-goal lead. Despite pulling Miner, nothing was made of it and Washington continued its hot start to the season with the win while tacking on an additional empty-netter in the final 2.7 seconds.

Takeaways

What was a big high coming into this game ended up being a drag and a disappointment for the Avalanche. They got started quickly with Kelly’s opening goal but didn’t have much after that. It would be the depth who took care of the scoring for the Avs, but none of the top guys found the scoresheet.

Those top guys got big reinforcements with Nichushkin, Wood, and Drouin all returning. But none of them stood out and certainly had some rust. Nichushkin had his moments rushing into the zone a couple of times and finding the side of the net, but it certainly wasn’t his best. The team, now as close to full strength as it has been all season, still needs some time to gel together before really going on a run.

Part of said gelling needs to come in the crease. Alexandar Georgiev has been ruled day-to-day with an upper-body injury, hence giving the net to Justus Annunen – for the first period and a third. Annunen didn’t have a great night, giving up three goals on six shots. It meant recently-called up Trent Miner would make his NHL debut, who was fine. But, this certainly isn’t the long-term answer, especially if Georgiev’s injury is longer than day-to-day.

Upcoming

After enjoying some time at home, the Avs head to the East Coast for the first time this season. It starts Monday night against the Philadelphia Flyers in perhaps former Av Erik Johsnon’s 1000th career game at 5:00 p.m. MT.