LAS VEGAS — Shortly before the puck dropped at T-Mobile Arena for a Friday matinee, Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson said he wasn’t surprised by the Golden Knights’ success as an expansion team.
The Knights had beaten Dallas. They had beaten St. Louis. They had beaten Chicago.
It was Colorado’s turn Friday.
Vegas handed the Avs their worst loss of the season, beating them 7-0. To make matters worse, the Avs lost two forwards — Gabriel Bourque and Alexander Kerfoot — to injuries.
Bourque left with an upper-body injury during the first period and Kerfoot was hit hard near the head by Brayden McNabb in the third. After the game, coach Jared Bednar said he hadn’t had a chance to check on them but said the Avs probably would “get some bodies on the move,” with another game Saturday.
“You have to have a short-term memory in this business, after the highs and after the lows, and that was certainly a low point for us tonight, not only the loss but losing all those guys too,” Bednar said.
Colorado (5-5-0) outshot Vegas 32-21 but couldn’t break through against Knights goaltender Oscar Dansk.
After being outplayed at the beginning of the game, the Avalanche finished off a solid first period. Early in the second, Matt Duchene had a couple scoring chances that he couldn’t convert. From there, it was all Vegas (8-1-0).
The Knights took over, scoring four goals in the second period, striking first after a Colorado turnover at the blue line. David Perron picked off the puck and carried it down, scoring his third goal of the season at 8:50 in the second period.
Vegas scored again a few minutes later. Oscar Lindberg beat several defenders to give the Knights a two-goal lead. The Avs challenged that Lindberg had been offside, which they lost at a pivotal point in the game.
“I’ve said it before — I don’t think a lot of people know what offside is anymore and that is what it is, but either way it’s a 2-0 hockey game and we’ve got to find a way to get some offense going,” said Avs captain Gabe Landeskog. “I think we do a little bit in the third, but it’s too late at that point.”
By the time the Avalanche got to that point, the Knights had already scored two more goals in the second period — one from Cody Eakin after a James Neal shot bounced off the boards and back to him, and one from Neal, who deflected in a Colin Miller shot.
“Two of the first three goals, they’re kind of self-inflicted,” Bednar said. “We had a turnover at the blue line. They went down and scored the one. The other one was the offside one and the next one was a turnover by us again, so we fall down 3-0 at that point. We’ve got to be better with the puck in some of those areas where there’s danger. And when it’s contested, we’ve got to be able to protect it a little bit better than that. Otherwise, it’s going to keep costing us.”
Third-period goals from Jonathan Marchessault, Erik Haula (power play) and William Carrier (power play) extended the Knights’ lead.
The Avs were down three forwards as the game ended. In addition to losing Bourque and Kerfoot because of injuries, A.J. Greer was given a game misconduct after a tussle with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in the third period.
They have little time to recover — or dwell on the loss — because they play the Chicago Blackhawks at the Pepsi Center on Saturday night.
“Whether you win or you lose, you’ve got to be able to turn the page and move on,” Landeskog said. “A big division opponent tomorrow (is) coming into the Pepsi Center and we’re excited to get this one away and get rid of this one, I should say, and then just move on for tomorrow. I think as a group we know what we’ve got to do better. We know things got away from us tonight and we’ve just got to learn from it.”
