Avalanche offense silent against Stuart Skinner, Oilers, as they lose second straight

2 weeks ago  /  Mile High Hockey  /  Read Time: 2 minutes 12 seconds

Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images


Colorado played well, but the Oilers were simply better and cashed in on their opportunities. For the second time in as many nights, the Colorado Avalanche played well but didn’t do enough to secure the victory.
The Edmonton Oilers came away with a 4-1 victory Saturday night at Ball Arena, handing Colorado its second straight loss.
On a night when Justus Annunen was shipped off to the Nashville Predators earlier in the day, Avalanche netminder Alexandar Georgiev was okay, but the man at the other end of the ice, Stuart Skinner, was outstanding, turning away 28 of 29 shot attempts. Georgiev stopped 28 of 31.
First Period
Colorado opened up scoring for a change, but it was their only score of the night.
Avs rookie Nikolai Kovalenko put his team on the board with a power-play goal at 7:02 of the first period. Artturi Lehkonen created some space to skate above the left circle and fired a diagonal pass to Kovalenko for the goal. The score was Kovalenko’s fourth of the season.
Four minutes later, Kasperi Kapanan scored for Edmonton to tie the game 1. It all started when all-time great Connor McDavid worked some magic from the outer edge of the offensive zone.
Second Period
From this point in the game, both teams had an equal amount of opportunities, but the difference was that the Oilers were scoring. As shorthanded as the Avalanche are and have been throughout the season, they still did an excellent job creating opportunities, but Skinner was stone-cold between the pipes. And to their credit, Edmonton was also missing two top-six forwards. So, while it would be convenient to use an excuse for the Avalanche, it wouldn’t work here. Edmonton simply capitalized when it counted the most. After all, hockey is a sport of inches.
In the second frame, Vasily Podkolzin deflected a shot from Troy Stecher to give the O Canada the lead and for good.
Third Period
Brett Kulak’s fifth goal of the season gave Edmonton a 3-1 lead 3:56 into the final period of play. It required no special method as an aggregate of bodies screened Georgiev and he was unable to track the puck.
And career-long Oiler Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who was drafted first overall by Edmonton in 2011, sealed the deal at 18:28 with an empty-netter to give his team the 4-1 victory.

Takeaways
Colorado played well despite the injury struggles.
Miles Wood’s latest injury is considered month-to-month, so there’s a good chance we won’t see him back until 2025, which is unfortunate.
With the Annunen trade, the Avs acquired veteran goaltender Scott Wedgewood. The 32-year-old played 32 games for the Dallas Stars last season backing up Jake Oettinger. In 28 starts, he posted a 16-7 record with a 2.85 GAA. In 4 starts for Nashville, Wedgewood was 1-2 with a 3.69 GAA, so a slight regression, but the sample size was much smaller. In comparison, Annunen was 8-4 with a 2.25 GAA last season for Colorado. The 24-year-old was 6-4 with a 3.23 GAA prior to getting traded.
The 32-year-old Wedgewood is signed through next season with a cap hit of $1.5 million.
Next Game:
The Avalanche are back on the road as they return on Tuesday, December 3, to take on the Buffalo Sabers at KeyBank Center. The game starts at 7 p.m. ET so that’s a 5 p.m. local start. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Wedgewood make his Avalanche debut on this night....

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