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Swede trip ends on sour note

November 11, 2017, 6:54 PM ET [8 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Too many penalties, too few shots.

That pretty much sums up the Avalanche's 4-3 loss to Ottawa on Saturday in the second game of the 2017 SAP NHL Global Series at Ericsson Globe in Stockholm.

Mike Hoffman's second power-play goal of the game broke a 3-3 tie with 6:37 left in the third period with defenseman Mark Barberio (tripping) serving his third penalty of the game. Hoffman scored after defenseman Chris Bigras tried to sweep away a deflected puck, and it went right on Hoffman's stick.

Bigras was in the box for hooking when Hoffman scored 12 seconds into the second period to tie the game 1-1 with a dump-in that took a weird bounce and skipped by goalie Jonathan Bernier (36 saves.)

Barberio's failed clear up the wall in the second period led to Mark Stone's goal that tied the game 2-2 at 9:16.

Let's face it, Barberio was a nice waiver pickup last season, but he is not a top pair defenseman.

The Avalanche (8-7-1), who were outshot 40-18, took a 3-2 lead on a goal by Sven Andrighetto at 10:36 of the second period against goalie Mike Condon, who was then pulled for Craig Anderson. Condon had seven saves, Anderson eight.

Ottawa tied the game 3-3 on Johnny Oduya's goal at 7:01 of the third period.

The Avalanche went 1-for-4 on power plays, the Senators 2-for-6.

"Good hockey teams know how to hold onto leads in the third period," rookie Alexander Kerfoot told AltitudeTV. "We took way too many penalties, and bad penalties too. We can't be taking penalties in the offensive zone, in the neutral zone. That cost us."

Kerfoot scored a power-play goal at 8:34 of the second period for a 2-1 Avalanche lead and assisted on Andrighetto's goal. He had two goals and two assists in Sweden, giving him seven goals and six assists in 16 games for the season.

The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead on Blake Comeau's shorthanded goal on a breakaway at 13:13 of the first period.

"We didn't move the puck efficiently out of our zone or through the neutral zone," coach Jared Bednar said. "We slowed everything down too much and turned too many pucks back. When you allow them to get into their structure in the neutral zone it's tough to work through there.

"I thought our penalty kill did a fantastic job really. At the end of the day they scored on the last one where we break up the play and it kind of deflects back to their shooter, Hoffman, coming down the flank.

"They did a good job, the problem was we got outworked in a lot of areas and took a bunch of penalties -- reaching penalties, stick penalties. We didn't use our legs to check, so we were reaching a lot and got called for them, got called for some in the offensive zone, a couple in the neutral zone on some turnovers and in the D zone as well."

The Avalanche's top line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen combined for three shots and no points. Defenseman Erik Johnson played 27:44 and had two assists.

Matt Duchene had eight shots for Ottawa.

As for the time in Stockholm:

"It was a great experience, everything non-hockey related," Bednar said. "It was fantastic, the hospitality, the setup, coming over here to play, the fan support, the whole week was great.

"The problem is, we were here to play two hockey games and we only got one point out of the four. It's not good enough. A win tonight makes it a successful road trip for us. Losing tonight the way we did kind of stings a little bit. It hurts, so now we got to get back to work. We got a couple days off because of the travel home and then we have to get back at it."

The Avalanche will play Washington on Thursday at the Pepsi Center.

This was the lineup:

FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Sven Andrighetto -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Nail Yakupov
Matt Nieto -- J.T. Compher -- Blake Comeau
Gabriel Bourque -- Colin Wilson -- Rocco Grimaldi

DEFENSE (pairings were interchanged throughout)
Mark Barberio -- Erik Johnson
Samuel Girard -- Tyson Barrie
Andrei Mironov -- Chris Bigras

GOALIES
Jonathan Bernier
Semyon Varlamov

*****

The Avalanche fan club Eurolanche has published a 200-page book that chronicles its North American "invasions" over the years to attend games at the Pepsi Center and other NHL venues, meet and interview Avalanche players, and visit popular attractions.




The book can be purchased for $24.99, which includes tracked international shipping.


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