The Colorado Avalanche are battling for home ice throughout the postseason, but it might not be an advantage given the way they’ve played there of late.
Colorado has lost four in a row at home, one in a shootout, and five of its last seven but will try to end that skid when it hosts the Calgary Flames on Monday night in Denver.
The Avalanche (48-14-10, 106 points) are 2-4-1 at Ball Arena since the Olympic break after starting the season 19-0-2 there.
The latest setback, 4-2 against Winnipeg on Saturday night, cut their lead over Dallas to seven points. Colorado will head into Monday night having played two fewer games than the Stars and will face them in Dallas on Saturday. First, the Avalanche host the Flames and Vancouver on Wednesday night.
“Obviously, this has got to be a place where teams (have) got to come in and feel our presence,” defenseman Cale Makar said after the loss to the Jets.
Makar had an assist Saturday night to reach 500 career points in just 467 games.
“It’s really special,” said Makar, who has 72 points (20 goals, 52 assists). “I don’t think I’m doing it anywhere else than here. Very fortunate to play with a group of guys like this. It makes my life easy, and I try to make theirs a little bit easier too.”
Winnipeg kept Nathan MacKinnon, the NHL’s leading goal-scorer, in check two nights after he scored twice in a game at the Jets. MacKinnon has 48 goals and is third in the league in scoring with 117 points.
Monday night will be Colorado center Nazem Kadri’s first game against the team that sent him to the Avalanche at the trade deadline. Kadri has two goals and five assists in 11 games since the deal and is centering the third line.
Calgary (31-34-8, 70 points) lost four of its first six games after the trade but has heated up lately. The Flames are 5-0-1 after that rough stretch and beat the Canucks 7-3 on Saturday night. Matt Coronato had a goal and two assists in the victory to push his point streak to five games.
Coronato is second on Calgary in scoring with 39 points (17 goals, 22 assists) behind Mikael Backlund’s 40. Coronato, 23, has been developing chemistry with linemates Morgan Frost and Matvei Gridin.
“Me, Frosty and Griddy, I feel like we’re getting more comfortable with each other every game and it’s been going well,” Coronato said. “We have a great group in here, a great room. We’re going to come out and play as hard as we can every night and we’re showing that when we’re playing the right way, we’re a really hard team to beat. We’re going to look to continue that.”
Monday marks the first time the Flames and Avalanche will meet this season, and they’ll play three times in the final three weeks. The Flames return to Denver on April 9 and wrap up the season series April 14 with the only game in Calgary.
–Field Level Media
