Front Range
Avalanche rally falls short in 4-3 loss to the Devils
Artturi Lehkonen scored twice in the final 3:13 of the third period, but Colorado's comeback from a 4-1 deficit ran out of time against Jake Allen and New Jersey at the Prudential Center.
NEWARK, N.J.
The rally came almost all at once, and it came almost too late. Artturi Lehkonen scored with 3:13 left in the third period and again with five seconds to play, but the Avalanche could not find the tying goal in a 4-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night at the Prudential Center. Jesper Boqvist's empty-net goal at 16:05 of the third period stood up as the game winner.
New Jersey opened the scoring at 6:40 of the first period, when Luke Evangelista scored from the slot in his return to the lineup after missing three games with an illness. Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog tied the game at 14:32 of the first, scoring his fourth goal of the season from close range on a play set up by Cale Makar, whose assist was the 300th even-strength point of his career.
The Devils took control in the second period. Declan Chisholm scored to put New Jersey ahead 2-1, and Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood kept his team within a goal with 16 of his 37 saves in the period. The Avalanche, by their captain's account, spent the period chasing the game. "They were kind of buzzing offensively and it felt like we were a little bit on our heels in our defensive zone," Landeskog said. "They were shooting and we were standing and watching where the rebound was going," Landeskog said, "and then they would jump to it. It just felt like we were reactionary instead of just going."
Arseny Gritsyuk stretched the lead to 3-1 at 4:39 of the third period, finishing a rush with a backhand shot for a goal in his third straight game. Boqvist's empty-net goal made it 4-1 before Lehkonen answered twice, scoring his seventh goal of the season at 16:47 off a feed from Gavin Brindley and his eighth at 19:55 with Colorado skating six attackers. Jake Allen finished with 31 saves for New Jersey on the night the Devils honored him before the game for his 500th career NHL game, which he had played on October 10.
Colorado coach Jared Bednar was blunt about the performance that put his team in the hole. "We looked slow and unenergetic," Bednar said. "We were losing races, losing battles. We waited too long to start playing." Makar finished with two assists and became the eighth player in Avalanche history with 80 career multi-assist games.
The loss dropped Colorado to 5-4-1 and to 1-2-1 in its past four games, one night after a 3-2 loss at Philadelphia on Monday. New Jersey improved to 5-4-0. The Avalanche return home to host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday at Ball Arena, with puck drop at 7 p.m. MDT on Altitude.
