Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche leaned on their speed to get off to another flying start.
This time
Authentic Jeff Locke Jersey , it held up.
MacKinnon scored twice, including one as part of a three-goal first period and another to chase Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne from the game, and the
Avalanche beat the Predators 5-3 in Game 3 on Monday night to pull to 2-1 in the
first-round series.
Blake Comeau and Gabriel Bourque also scored in a furious opening period that revved up a pom-pom waving capacity crowd. Gabriel Landeskog was credited with
an empty-net goal for the Avalanche, who snapped a 12-game skid against the
Predators.
”Our guys were energized,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. ”We were on our toes and the aggressors early in that game and it paid off for us.”
Game 4 is Wednesday in Denver.
For a third straight game in the series, Colorado scored first. But the Avs were able to make it stand in this one. MacKinnon and his teammates have been a
different bunch at home this year. Their 28 home wins in the regular season was
tied for the most in franchise history with the 2000-01 squad that hoisted the
Stanley Cup.
”They gained a lot of momentum, used their atmosphere to their advantage and we weren’t able to respond in that first period,” Predators forward Ryan
Johansen said. ”That can’t happen.”
MacKinnon’s goal at 4:25 of the second period gave Colorado a 4-0 lead and prompted the Predators to pull Rinne in favor of backup Juuse Saros . Rinne
allowed four goals on 15 shots.
”We weren’t very good in front of him,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. ”I didn’t think we were giving him the support he needed.”
Laviolette wasn’t in a mood to elaborate on what exactly went wrong.
”It wasn’t good,” Laviolette said of the first period.
Any particular reason?
”We didn’t play very well,” he said.
One thing was clear: MacKinnon was as fast as ever on home ice. He led the league in home scoring in the regular season with 67 points.
”He thrives on the energy in the building,” Bednar said. ”He’s just so explosive at home. He’s dangerous every time he touches the puck at home.”
Jonathan Bernier stopped 29 shots on a night when the Avalanche finished 0 for 5 on the power play. Johansen had a second-period goal and Colton Sissons
scored another in the third to make it 4-2. Saros was pulled for an extra skater
with around 2:20 left and
Kerryon Johnson Color Rush Jersey , moments later, Landeskog was credited with a goal after being dragged down on a breakaway. A sliding Landeskog was
trying to get the puck over to MacKinnon for the hat trick.
It’s about the only thing that didn’t work out for Colorado.
”We proved to ourselves that we can get a win,” MacKinnon said. ”Hopefully it just snowballs from here.”
Nashville got on the board midway through the second after Colorado was whistled for two penalties on a play, giving the Predators a 5-on-3 advantage.
Johansen knocked in a rebound to make it 4-1, but Colorado quelled the other
portion of the power play.
Late in the second, P.K. Subban and MacKinnon got tangled up near the corner. It led to some pushing and shoving with both getting holding penalties.
Simply playoff hockey.
”Anytime you play the same team over and over and over again you start to really dislike each other,” said Austin Watson, who added a late goal. ”It’s
good battles, good intensity out there and it’s fun hockey.”
It didn’t take long for Colorado to get on the board with Comeau scoring 1:50 into the game and on the team’s second shot. The Avs beat Rinne on their opening
shot in each of the first two games.
Shortly after Bourque tipped in Patrik Nemeth’s shot, MacKinnon scored with 1:53 remaining in the first when he took a pass from Landeskog, used a burst of
speed to get free and beat Rinne with a wrist shot.
The last time the Avalanche played at the Pepsi Center it was also desperation time. They beat St. Louis in a winner-gets-into-the-playoffs season
finale.
NOTES: Nashville LW Viktor Arvidsson nearly had a goal in the first when he and the puck crashed into Bernier at the same time. The puck slid in, but the
officials waved it off due to goaltender interference. … F Filip Forsberg had an
assist on Johansen’s goal to become the Predators’ all-time postseason points
leader (29). … A Nashville fan threw a catfish onto the ice. … Avs D Samuel
Girard missed a second straight game with an upper-body injury. … D Nikita
Zadorov celebrated his 23rd birthday. … Broncos LB Von Miller showed up wearing
a No. 58 Avalanche jersey.
—
Philadelphia’s six leading average scorers so far in the playoffs
http://www.49ersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-dante-pettis-jersey , in order are: Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, Joel Embiid, JJ Redick, Marco Belinelli
and Ersan Ilyasova.
Their homelands: Australia, Croatia, Cameroon, the United States, Italy and Turkey.
Philadelphia – a melting pot of humanity for more than 300 years – has a basketball team probably as diverse as the city itself. The 76ers, 19-1 in their
last 20 games and suddenly looking very much like an NBA Finals contender, will
try to close out the Miami Heat and clinch their Eastern Conference opening
series when they play host to Game 5 on Tuesday night.
About a dozen languages and dialects can be spoken in the 76ers locker room at any time, but clearly
Youth Jihad Ward Jersey , winning is a universal language.
”It’s all basketball, but the true side of how people coach, speak, say, play the game is different,” 76ers coach Brett Brown said. ”And that collection now
that I have with everybody is like is a melting pot of all peoples experiences.
That equals a team. I mean, I love it. I love the geo-political conversations. I
love that diversity on the court, off the court. I enjoy it.”
There might be no coach better-suited for this particular gig that Brown, too.
He spent nearly two decades living overseas, spending most of that time coaching in Australia before getting hired by the San Antonio Spurs – another
franchise that has found championship ingredients from all over the world – back
in 2002. Brown went to Philadelphia in 2013, took loss after loss after loss for
his first four seasons when The Process was playing itself out, and now is
reaping the rewards.
The 76ers are young. They’re brash. They’re fearless. And they’re legit.
”A lot of the guys growing up overseas
Cheap Baker Mayfield Jersey , we have that European style of play,” Simmons said. ”It’s a lot different than the U.S. style.”
Simmons is still a kid, in the NBA sense. He’s 21. But he’s already seen the world with a basketball in hand: He’s played all over Australia, represented his
country in Lithuania at the FIBA World U17 Championships as a 15-year-old, ended
up going to high school in Florida and spent his lone year of college at
LSU.
”I’ve seen a lot,” Simmons said. ”I’ve played everywhere.”
The poise shows, with the rookie shining in his first playoffs.
Embiid, also in his first playoffs and with a mask protecting his surgically repaired face, has handled playing injured with ease. Belinelli has been a
steadying force since he got to Philadelphia two months ago. Saric has been
doing things in these playoffs that can draw comparisons to what that countrymen
Drazen Petrovic and Peja Stojakovic did before him. Ilyasova has been a key
player for Philadelphia since getting rescued from Atlanta in February.
They all think differently, many learned the game differently, and the backgrounds are wildly different.
But it works.
A record 62 players from 33 countries were on playoff rosters across the NBA this season, and no one had more of them than Philadelphia – the 76ers have
seven international guys with them for the postseason
Steve Cishek Jersey , matching Utah for the league lead.
”My English isn’t that good, Dario’s isn’t that good, but we try to be a great group,” Belinelli said. ”And we are. We go to dinner all together, we
spend a lot of time together in the locker room after practice. It’s just part
of the work, I think. Having all these guys from different parts of the world,
it’s a good thing.”
Brown, a coach in three Olympics, couldn’t agree more.
”This global instinct and sort of global feeling that we have in Philadelphia interests me very much,” Brown said. ”I embrace it. For me, it’s another layer
of why I enjoy coaching this team.”
—
.
