The Colorado Avalanche scored a dominating 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night at Rogers Place. The Oilers have lost four in a row.
The Avalanche scored on the first shift of the game, with Mikko Rantanen tapping a rebound under Cam Talbot 26 seconds in.
“It’s big. You get one first shift so you just feel good about yourself,” Avs forward Nathan MacKinnon said. “Those are always nice when you get one early. They don’t come very much but when they do it feels good.”
“You could summarize the game in that first 25 seconds,” head coach Todd McLellan said. “We didn’t establish a directness to our attack, we turned the puck over in the neutral zone and then we got beat to a rebound, and that puts us on our heels.”
LISTEN BELOW: Todd McLellan
Colorado controlled the first period and added another goal from Carl Soderberg, making it the fourth straight game the Oilers allowed the game’s first two goals.
The Avalanche continued to dominate in the second period. Alexander Kerfoot jammed in a power play goal to make it 3-0 just past the five minute mark. Talbot was replaced in net by Mikko Koskinen after allowing three goals on 15 shots. Tyson Barrie scored his first of the season to put the Avs up 4-0 after two.
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“This is a game we needed to win. You need the energy and you need some things to go right for you and we get a break early and we score on a nice play,” head coach of the Avalanche Jared Bednar said. The Avs had lost five straight coming into Edmonton.
The Oilers got on the board just before the halfway point of the third when Ty Rattie deflected home an Adam Larsson point shot. Leon Draisaitl had a chance from right in front on the power play less than two minutes later, but Semyon Varlamov made a brilliant leg save.
“We’re weren’t desperate enough,” captain Connor McDavid said. “We should be a desperate team. We’ve lost three in a row.”
LISTEN BELOW: Connor McDavid
“We’ve got to move on,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “It’s still early in the season and we’re still establishing our game. We’ve got to be able to move on.”
The Oilers, 8-8-1, will host Montreal on Tuesday.
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