The Avalanche won their third game against the Oilers, this time in Edmonton on Saturday. With a 4-2 victory, Colorado now leads the Western Conference Finals 3-0 and the series could be erased on Monday.
Valeri Nishushkin scored twice in the win. Goaltender Pavel Francouz stopped 27 of the 29 shots he faced, while his vis-à-vis Mike Smith was busier, facing 42 shots.
Shut out of the last game in Colorado, the Oilers scored on their first pitch of the game.
Connor McDavid led the Oilers just after 38 seconds into his ninth playoff goal, when he had just jumped on the ice.
Edmonton immediately had to defend their lead as Evander Kane was given a heavy penalty for hitting Nazem Kadri in the corner of the rink. Scoring three points in his team’s victory on Thursday did not return to the game afterwards.
The Avalanche bombarded Mike Smith with eight shots in power play, but was unstoppable by the Oilers goaltender, who blocked with shots from Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog in succession.
The visitors added two shots in another power play, still failing to beat Mike Smith.
With 3:38 left on the stage, the Avalanche finally finds a hole in Smith’s weapon, but needs help from the Darnell Nurse to do so.
Placed in the corner of the ice, Valeri Nichushkin threw the puck in front of Smith’s net, it touched the Oilers defenseman’s stick to find the small hole between the goalie’s right pad and the post.
Early in the second period, the Oilers quickly put goaltender Pavel Francouz to the test. He stood in front of Zack Kassian, Ryan McLeod and Waren Foegele in the first two minutes of the engagement.
The Avalanche led with Valeri Nishushkin’s second goal with 4:37 left in the game.
The visitors, who threw Mike Smith 11 times in the first period, added 18 shots in the second.
At 7:34 of the third period, Ryan McLeod returned both teams to square one when he almost completely mimicked Connor McDavid. He grabbed the puck in his crease, crossed the rink at full speed, before defeating Francouz with an accurate shot.
The guests regained the lead five minutes later. Just outside the dungeon, JT Compher took advantage of Mike Smith’s generosity, which has been great ever since. The Avalanche forward shot went through the goalie’s pads.
More details will follow.
Source: Radio-Canada
