Colorado did not lose three consecutive games in regulation during the regular season, so it was surprising to see the team lose the first three games of this series to Vegas, which finished 26 points behind them in the NHL standings.
It was also surprising to see the Avalanche blow a 3-0 lead in Game 3 on Sunday, giving up three goals in the second and two more in the third in a 5-3 loss.
“I think our team’s played with more intensity and more desperation as the series has gone on and it hasn’t worked out for us yet,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “The hill to climb, it’s definitely a tough one. It just doesn’t happen very often and we’re certainly understanding of that. But I think we have a lot of pride and a lot of character in our room, and we displayed that time over time throughout the course of the year.
“This will be our most difficult challenge, but I believe we will show up and we will be ready to play, ready to compete for a win tomorrow night.”
Making the task more daunting for Colorado is that defenseman Cale Makar seems to be playing through an upper-body injury and forward Nathan MacKinnon sustained a leg injury after blocking a shot on Sunday and is uncertain for Game 4.
Makar missed the first two games of the series before returning for Game 3.
Vegas won 4-2 in Game 1, holding off Colorado after building a 3-0 lead and closing the game out with an empty-net goal. In Game 2, Vegas scored two goals in a span of 2:07 in the third period to overcome a 1-0 deficit in what turned out to be a 3-1 final.
“It’s very evenly matched and the games have shown that. They’ve come out on top of three of them,” Bednar said. “Certainly, would love it only to be two, especially after last night, building a three-goal lead. But we are where we are now, and we know how fine the margins are, and we have to keep trying to exploit them and trying to make one more play than we have in the previous games, both on the offensive side and on the defensive side, to win a hockey game. When you look at it from that perspective, I think it becomes a lot more realistic.”
