Colorado Avalanche Game Day: Intriguing Game 2 against Golden Knights

The Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights will be facing off in game two of this second-round series. Game one was either an aberration or a sign of things to come. Colorado dominated play, winning 7-1 in a game that also featured plenty of post-whistle controversies, leading to the suspension of Vegas forward Ryan Reaves.

Colorado Avalanche

The chances of the Avalanche repeating a seven-goal performance aren’t very high, but such a display offers plenty to build on. The Avalanche didn’t just beat Robin Lehner, who let in a few softies, but they also seemed to outskate and outwork the Golden Knights.

Colorado’s elite top line was in full effect on Sunday, and they will look to continue a heater. All three forwards (MacKinnon, Landeskog & Rantanen) collected at least a goal, with MacKinnon and Landeskog each scoring two goals and an assist.

FORWARDS

Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Brandon Saad - Tyson Jost - Valeri Nichushkin

Andre Burakovsky - JT Compher - Joonas Donskoi

Sampo Ranta - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Alex Newhook

DEFENDERS

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Ryan Graves - Samuel Girard

Patrik Nemeth - Conor Timmins

Vegas Golden Knights

The Knights will likely burn the film from Sunday’s whooping. They were coming off an emotional game seven victory over the Minnesota Wild, started what most would consider their backup goalie, and didn’t have their legs coming off just one day’s rest.

Expect Vegas to come out of the gates hot after an extra day’s rest and with Marc Andre Fleury in the net.

Note: The NHL has suspended Ryan Reaves for two games in response to his roughing of Avalanche defender Ryan Graves. A skirmish that involved Reaves kneeling on Graves’ head and removing some of Graves’ luscious lox.

FORWARDS

Max Pacioretty - Chandler Stephenson - Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault - William Karlsson - Reilly Smith

Mattias Janmark - Nicolas Roy - Alex Tuch

Will Carrier - Patrick Brown - Keegan Kolesar

DEFENDERS

Alec Martines - Alex Pietrangelo

Nick Holden - Shea Theodore

Nicolas Hague - Zach Whitecloud

GOALTENDING

Tonight’s matchup will feature two Vezina Trophy candidates. For the Avalanche, it will be Philipp Grubauer who has made all the necessary saves and given his team a chance to win game in and game out.

For Vegas, it will be Marc Andre Fleury. Fleury is the type of goalie known to steal games and has done so against the Avalanche already this season.