Second period dooms Avalanche, fall to Senators 4-2

After winning their previous two contests, the Colorado Avalanche fell tonight to the Ottawa Senators after a frustrating three-goal second period that featured multiple head-scratching penalties and defensive plays from veteran players.

The Avalanche would get on the scoreboard first, setting up in the Senators’ zone and moving the puck back up to the point. Blake Comeau passed to defenseman Cody Goloubef, who waited a moment for a screen to set up in front of the net and unloaded a slap shot. Matt Nieto, posted up in the slot, tipped the puck past former Avalanche goalie, Craig Anderson, to give Colorado a 1-0 lead.

Ottawa would tie the game midway through the second period after putting a strong forecheck in the Avalanche zone. Tom Pyatt won a puck battle in the corner against Mark Barberio and Jean-Gabriel Pageau swooped in to kick the puck back out in front of the net. His pass, however, would unexpectedly get redirected right to a wide-open Fredrik Claesson, who was able to take his time and fire off a wrist shot far-side past Calvin Pickard.

Like we’ve seen too often this season, the Senators would score two more—in rapid succession. The first of which occurred following a really unnecessary Rene Bourque tripping penalty. Half a minute later, Mike Hoffman took a pass from Erik Karlsson, skated below the left circle and ripped a shot off of Pickard’s pads. Alexandre Burrows, apparently in stealth mode, slipped the attention of nearby Fedor Tyutin, collected the puck and buried it to give his team their first lead of the game.

Hoffman would be primarily responsible for the next one too. After skating into the Avs’ zone and pulling up, he waited for traffic to cross his shot path and sent a seemingly innocuous wrister at the net. Pickard clearly never saw it until it was sitting behind him and setting off the siren.

Pickard would fare no better in the third. The Senators would score again to make it 4-1 when Burrows launched a wrist shot from the point with traffic in front. The puck would be tipped in the net yet again, this time by Ryan Dzingel with Derick Brassard providing additional screening higher in the slot.

The Avalanche took advantage of one last power play near the end of the game with, perhaps, their third unit on the ice. Carl Soderberg dished to Joe Colborne down below the goal line, who fed recent trade acquisition Sven Andrighetto out front for his first goal in an Avalanche uniform. More notable is that was his third point in four games since joining the team after the trade deadline. Alas, it was for naught.

Colorado will attempt to return to winning hockey again on Monday against the struggling Arizona Coyotes.