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Calvert might be OK for Game 4 |
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Rick Sadowski
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Matt Calvert took part in an optional practice while wearing a regular jersey Wednesday and might be able to play Thursday when the Avalanche face San Jose in Game 4 of the second-round series at the Pepsi Center.
“We’ll see how today goes and tomorrow morning, but there’s a possibility,” coach Jared Bednar said.
Calvert didn’t play Tuesday in the Avalanche’s 4-2 loss to the Sharks, who regained home-ice advantage and have a 2-1 series lead.
Calvert sustained an upper-body injury on Sunday in the Avalanche’s 4-3 win in San Jose on an open-ice hit by Sharks defenseman Brent Burns. Calvert absorbed the hit passing to Nathan MacKinnon for an empty-net goal and a 4-2 lead with 1:02 left in the third period.
“First skate for me in two days,” Calvert said. “We’re going to talk to the trainers and re-evaluate. Feeling good. I’ll have to see after practice, see how I feel and go from there.”
When asked about absorbing the hit, Calvert said: “You got to make a play.”
He added: “To tell you the truth, I didn’t think he was coming right through me, I thought he was just going to contest me. It’s part of the game. You take hits like that, you get back up and you re-evaluate the next day and see if you’re ready to go. It’s happened to me a lot all year.”
Round 2 schedule
All times Mountain Time
Game 1 – San Jose 5, Avalanche 2
Game 2 – Avalanche 4, San Jose 3
Game 3 – San Jose 4, Avalanche 2
Thursday 8 p.m. -- at Pepsi Center
Saturday 8 p.m. -- at San Jose
* Monday TBD – at Pepsi Center
* Wednesday May 8, TBD – at San Jose
*If necessary
The Avalanche will need to play a lot better Thursday whether or not Calvert plays.
Bednar said after the game that the Avalanche made some “boneheaded decisions” with the puck. They spent part of Wednesday looking at video.
“We have to be more responsible with the puck,” Mikko Rantanen said. “We turned over too many pucks, especially in the first two (periods). We kind of played into their strengths, they want to play counter hockey and play in the O-zone, have long shifts.”
Two of the Sharks’ goals came off turnovers. Timo Meier scored with 1:18 left in the first period for a 2-0 lead after he intercepted Erik Johnson’s stretch pass. Logan Couture, who had a hat trick, took advantage of a Gabriel Landeskog turnover to give San Jose a 3-2 lead with 7:10 left in the third period, 65 seconds after Matt Nieto tied the game.
The Meier-Couture-Gustav Nyquist line accounted for four goals and four assists.
“We just have to learn from our mistakes, we did more mistakes, we gave them a couple goals too,” Rantanen said. “They’re a good team, so if you give them anything or too much room they’re going to capitalize. We have to be better. You have to be on your game all the time, you can’t sleep at any moment. They’re a veteran team with a lot of playoff experience.
“They’ve been in these situations more than us, but I don’t think it’s a problem for us. We know what to do. There were some moments we were not playing good in the first round (against Calgary), but we always answered back. Now it’s time to answer back.
“You don’t want to go (down) 3-1 back to San Jose, so we know what we have to do to get the win. I believe in every guy on this team and I believe everybody does, so it’s going to be a big fight tomorrow, but we’re ready.”
The Avalanche need to play with more discipline, not get frustrated with San Jose’s defensive scheme, and make smarter decisions.
“Last night it looked like we wanted to be a rush team when they’re not going to give that to you," Bednar said. "If they’re not going to give it to you, you have to find other ways to work around it and become successful. To me, it’s having the mindset that we’re willing to be patient and disciplined with our decisions.
"If we got to go forecheck, then so be it and eventually we’ll come up with a puck and we can play some offensive zone time and create some scoring chances that way. It’s going to be a little bit of a different mindset for our group that we haven’t had recently and in going through the season, but it’s something we’re going to have to make an adjustment to.
“It’s not going to be pretty all the time, but if you repeatedly do the right things, you’re going to get rewarded for it.”
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