DENVER - The Red Wings spent most of Saturday night trying to survive Colorado’s special teams, and the Avalanche made sure that was a losing battle.
Colorado cashed in on three power-play chances and added another goal at even strength on the way to a 4-0 win over Detroit at Ball Arena on Saturday, Nov. 7. The Wings generated 27 shots against Mackenzie Blackwood, but the night tilted hard in the second period and never really came back.
Detroit actually opened with some life. The Wings outshot the Avalanche 13-5 in the first period and looked like the sharper team early, but they couldn’t turn that edge into a goal.
From there, Colorado took over. In the middle frame, the Avalanche outshot Detroit 13-2 while the Wings were assessed five penalties in a nearly six-minute span, and the power-play damage followed.
Coach Todd McLellan liked what he saw at the start, but not what came after.
"I was real happy with our start, the first period was excellent," McLellan said. "We did a lot of the things we wanted to do. It would have been nice to find a way to sneak one (goal) behind the goaltender, but the second period starts and we get called for five penalties in 10 minutes and that really changed the game.
"We didn't deal well with our emotions. We're going to get nights where the other team is better, or the officials won't go in our favor, but we'll have to deal with it."
The Wings have now dropped four of their last five and have scored just three goals over their last three games, all losses. With Dylan Larkin out, the offense has become a bigger issue by the night, and Andrew Copp said the team needs more traffic and more second chances around the net.
"We need those second-chance opportunities, it feels like we're a little one and done around the net," Copp said. "Whether that's forwards not getting there, or pucks getting through to the net, whatever combination, we need to get a little hungrier around the net.
"And the power play needs to sharpen up as well."
Detroit, now 7-8-3 with 17 points, has slid into last place in the Atlantic Division and knows it needs to start banking points on this four-game road trip before the gap grows.
"We know it's been a tough stretch and we need to end it as quick as possible," Copp said.
The Avalanche did most of their damage with the man advantage. Martin Necas opened the scoring with his eighth goal at 9:46 of the second period after a loose puck popped to him at the post and he slid it past Daniil Tarasov. Nathan MacKinnon made it 2-0 at 12:30 with a one-timer from the flanks after Keegan Kolesar was called for interference, though moments earlier Kolesar appeared to be held by Nazem Kadri with no penalty called.
Moritz Seider didn’t hide his frustration with the stretch of penalties.
"It's never ideal to spend eight minutes on the kill in the second period," Seider said. "But what are you going to do? Sometimes you let the frustration get the best of you because you're not happy with the circumstances out there."
Colorado kept pressing in the third. Necas scored again at 7:15, batting a puck out of the air and into the net after Tarasov couldn’t control it, and Cale Makar finished the scoring at 9:45 with a wrist shot from near the high slot on another power play. That came after Seider and Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog mixed it up, a scrap that fired up the crowd and left Seider with an extra roughing penalty.
The exchange between Seider and Landeskog had the feel of a moment that could swing things, but it ended up swinging the wrong way for Detroit.
"He just surprised me," Seider said. "After all that, maybe it gave us a little bit of a push but it went the other way for some reason and we ended up on the wrong side of things on the (penalty) kill."
Colorado has now beaten Detroit 15 times in the last 17 meetings between the teams. The Wings will try to regroup Tuesday, Nov. 10, when they face St. Louis in the second game of this road trip.
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