Recent injuries to a pair of Colorado Avalanche stars could put a damper on an enticing road matchup with the surging Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
Both leading scorer Nathan MacKinnon and two-time Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar left in the second period of Colorado’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday with lower-body injuries.
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar provided no updates on either player’s status during his postgame news conference, leaving their availability for Saturday in question.
“Obviously, they’re two of the best players in the world, so you like to have them, no doubt,” Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said of his star teammates after the game. “But I don’t think it’s any different, right? You just play with whoever you got, whoever’s ready to go, whoever’s healthy and up, they play. So, hope those guys will be just fine.”
Landeskog looked poised to be the hero as he helped erase Colorado’s two-goal deficit, scoring the team’s third consecutive goal with 9:57 remaining in the third period. The Senators rallied, however, as Drake Batherson tied the game with 3:56 left in regulation before Shane Pinto scored his second goal of the night at 2:08 of overtime.
“I liked our effort all the way around. It’s a good hockey team we played,” Bednar said of his squad, which earned a point in its fourth consecutive game (2-0-2). “You’re running without a couple of horses for half the game. So, pretty gutsy effort from our group, I’ll take it. I mean, we weren’t perfect. We made some mistakes, it cost us. But all in all, pretty happy with the game and what we did. It’s a big point.”
Parker Kelly, who committed the costly giveaway that led to Pinto’s game-winner, also scored in the contest, while Artturi Lehkonen tallied his team-leading 14th goal of the season.
Montreal heads into the matchup with plenty of confidence after a decisive 5-2 road win over longtime rival Boston on Thursday.
The Canadiens jumped out to a 5-0 lead en route to the victory, extending their point streak to 12 games (9-0-3) and moving into a tie atop the tightly contested Atlantic Division.
A key part of Montreal’s success has been rookie goaltender Jacob Fowler, who continued his impressive run with 30 saves Thursday. The 21-year-old is 9-1-2 this season with a 2.13 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage.
“He’s phenomenal, I think we’re running out of words to describe him,” Kirby Dach, who scored the game’s opening goal, said of the young goaltender. “He’s great. He’s our rock. He makes the game pretty easy for us and calms us down when things aren’t going our way. He makes a lot of big saves at key moments throughout the game, and we’re able to turn those into offense.”
Cole Caufield, who also scored Thursday, will look to live up to his nickname of “Mr. Saturday Night.” The Canadiens’ leading goal scorer has 17 goals in his past 16 Saturday games dating to Jan. 24.
–Field Level Media
