After grinding out a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday, the Colorado Avalanche look to take a 2-0 series lead over the Kings tonight in game two. Puck drop is set for 8:22 p.m. MT on ESPN.
Game one was certainly much more low-scoring than some people might have initially anticipated, but the Avs wound up with the win, and that’s ultimately what matters in the playoffs. No one really cares how you win, just that you won. Despite Colorado pulling out the win, there are still plenty of places for the Avs to improve, such as on the powerplay, specifically, as the Avs went 0-4 in game one. If the Avs can play as they did in game one and convert on the powerplay, they should be more than capable of burying the Kings tonight and taking a two-game lead to Los Angeles for game three.
No word on when Ross Colton is set to draw back into the lineup but all indications are the Avs are going with the same lineup which won them Game 1. That includes in net with Scott Wedgewood expected to get the start again.
Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Parker Kelly – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Gabriel Landeskog – Nazem Kadri – Nicolas Roy
Joel Kiviranta – Jack Drury – Logan O’Connor
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Brent Burns – Josh Manson
Brett Kulak – Sam Malinski
Scott Wedgewood
Mackenzie Blackwood
Going into this series, it was known that the Kings were going to try to keep the games low-scoring to try and give themselves a chance to be competitive, which is what they were able to do in game one. While this team has some offensive firepower with the likes of Panarin, Kopitar, Byfield, and Kempe in its lineup, the way they thrived in games throughout the year was by playing strong defensively and keeping games low-scoring. If the Avs can break through on the powerplay and run away in game two, as mentioned above, LA is going to have a difficult time hanging around.
Artemi Panarin – Anze Kopitar – Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore – Quinton Byfield – Alex Laferriere
Joel Armia – Scott Laughton – Jared Wright
Mathieu Joseph – Samuel Helenius – Jeff Malott
Mikey Anderson – Drew Doughty
Joel Edmundson – Brandt Clarke
Brian Dumoulin – Cody Ceci
Anton Forsberg
Darcy Kuemper
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