ELMONT, N.Y. — Just when one problem seemed to be solved for the Colorado Avalanche, the headache multiplied instead.
Colorado ended its longest scoring drought in three years then exploded for a 3-0 lead halfway through the second period Saturday, only to collapse in the third period. A 5-4 loss to the New York Islanders sends the Avs to Finland needing a break. They’ll get a relative respite, with five days off before their next game against Columbus in the NHL Global Series.
The Avalanche (4-4-1) led 3-1 entering the third period but allowed the game-tying and game-winning goals within 17 seconds of each other. Anthony Beauvillie scored his third of the year for New York in an odd-man rush with 9:04 remaining, catching the Avalanche off-guard after the previous goal.
Without leading scorer Valeri Nichushkin in the lineup for the second consecutive game, coach Jared Bednar tossed his forward lines into a blender. Emerging was an entirely different trio on the second line: Artturi Lehkonen, seemingly down from the top line to provide a forechecking spark, plus J.T. Compher and Logan O’Connor elevated from the bottom six.
It was the quieter, corresponding move that paid dividends: Evan Rodrigues joining the top line in the exchange with Lehkonen.
The newcomer Rodrigues scored twice in a breakthrough second period.
The Avalanche’s longest scoring drought of the 2021-22 Stanley Cup season lasted 104 minutes, three seconds of game time.
Two seconds after the puck dropped signaling the start of the second period Saturday, the longest drought of the new season surpassed that.
Someone must have told Rodrigues.
It ended at 104:47 without a goal, the Avalanche’s longest scoreless drought since Nov. 1-5, 2019. That one lasted 109:30 across three games against Dallas and Arizona. This one spanned parts of three games in the tri-state area.
Rodrigues fired a scorching one-timer from between the circles on an assist from Mikko Rantanen, giving Colorado a 1-0 lead 46 seconds into the period and 30 before a power play expired. Later in a five-on-five shift with the top line, Rodrigues redirected a Nathan MacKinnon shot into the bottom corner of the net.
That made it 3-0, although the most impressive sequence of the game was sandwiched between those goals. Alexandar Georgiev made multiple outstanding saves by extending his right blocker to deny New York’s attempts to stuff in a rebound. Defender Josh Manson blocked an ensuing shot from the blue line, spun and passed ahead through the neutral zone.
Mikko Rantanen scored a clean breakaway goal. All was well, for the moment.
Meanwhile, Alex Newhook centered the third line and Martin Kaut returned down to the fourth 24 hours after replacing Nichushkin on the second. Kurtis MacDermid replaced Jacob MacDonald as the 12th forward after MacDonald barely played Friday night.
Bednar was fiddling around with unpredictable combinations, looking for an urgent spark after the rare, sour taste of a shutout the previous night. Newhook finally recorded his first point of the season, but it came on a goal with 29 seconds left. Immediately after an empty-net New York goal, it was too little, too late.
