Shorthanded Avalanche drops home finale to Canucks
The next hockey tournament at Ball Arena will have much bigger stakes thankfully Short five regulars due to injury including the reigning MVP the Colorado Avalanche dropped a - decision to the Vancouver Canucks in the final home match of its regular season Thursday night The Nathan MacKinnon-less Avs looked like a organization that didn t have a lot to play for The Canucks were missing four regulars including center Elias Pettersson and were eliminated from playoff contention Wednesday night Colorado has known for weeks that the Dallas Stars likely await in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs With the Stars losing Thursday night to Winnipeg it is all but assured that the Avs will be traveling to Texas next weekend for the start of a best-of- series Dallas knocked Colorado out of the playoffs in six games Vancouver built a two-goal lead in the second period with a pair of tallies three minutes apart Jake DeBrusk scored off a centering pass from Kiefer Sherwood at Sherwood doubled the advantage at with a shot from the right faceoff circle that beat Avs goalie Mackenzie Blackwood over his left shoulder Sherwood had never scored more than goals in the NHL before this season but he s up to this year including four against the Avalanche Devon Toews got one back for Colorado late in the second Toews tipped a shot from the top of the zone by Charlie Coyle for his th goal of the season It was also his second tip goal of the year he did not have one in the NHL before this season Cale Makar who became the only Avs sportsman to appear in all games this season had an assist on the play Makar now has points this season which extends his franchise record for a defenseman Makar is the fourth defenseman to points at least points in a season since joining Quinn Hughes last year Roman Josi in - and Erik Karlsson in - An NHL defenseman has scored -plus points times in league history but only players have done it Dakota Joshua restored Vancouver s two-goal advantage at of the third period and then Nils Hoglander tucked one into the empty net MacKinnon did not play in this event because of a minor injury Avs coach Jared Bednar revealed he may not play this weekend either in games at Los Angeles and Anaheim It was the first encounter MacKinnon has missed since Dec He had played in regular-season consecutive contests MacKinnon is presently tied with Tampa Bay s Nikita Kucherov for the NHL scoring lead but this likely ends his bid to win the Art Ross Trophy for the first time If he doesn t play this weekend MacKinnon will finish with goals and points That ties Peter Forsberg for the ninth-most points in a season in band history and the third the majority since the franchise moved to Denver Related Articles Nathan MacKinnon out with minor injury could miss final three regular-season games Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog practices with Eagles He looked great Avalanche loans captain Gabe Landeskog to Eagles for conditioning assignment Avalanche rallies from early deficit defeats Golden Knights in shootout Nathan MacKinnon ties Joe Sakic for Denver-based Avalanche scoring record Defenseman Ryan Lindgren also joined the walking wounded after being injured Tuesday night against Vegas The Avs are also still without forwards Ross Colton and Jonathan Drouin and defenseman Josh Manson There were positive developments on the injury front Forward Martin Necas and defenseman Samuel Girard returned to the lineup Necas started this contest at center the first time he s played there since arriving in the blockbuster late January arrangement from Carolina There could be more good news Friday Captain Gabe Landeskog is expected to participate in the Eagles morning skate Friday in Loveland and the plan is for him to play that night It would be his first hockey challenge since the Stanley Cup Final Landeskog is trying to come back from knee cartilage replacement surgery No member has had the procedure and returned to NHL action before If Landeskog does play Friday it will be days since he last played in a championship Want more Avalanche news Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis
