05/07/2022 – Page 3 – CanucksBanter

By TERESA M. WALKER

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche lost goalie Darcy Kuemper late in the first period. Their power play is so strong right now that’s all they lost.

Gabriel Landeskog scored twice in the second period, and the top-seeded Avalanche beat the Nashville Predators 7-3 Saturday for a commanding 3-0 lead in their first-round Western Conference series.

Landeskog also had two assists. Nazem Kadri and Devon Toews each added a goal and an assist, and Artturi Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon scored a power-play goal apiece as Colorado went 4 for 5 on the man advantage to push Nashville to the brink of elimination. Cale Makar had three assists.

“I’ve liked our power play a lot in this series, and tonight we just converted on our chances,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Sometimes it’s as simple as that.”

Valeri Nichushkin added an empty-net goal with 2:46 left. The Avs had a couple missed opportunities once Nashville pulled goalie Connor Ingram with more than 4 minutes remaining.

Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper was hurt with a minute left in the first period. Pavel Francouz replaced him and made 18 saves in his seventh career playoff appearance. Francouz didn’t see what happened to Kuemper, only that his teammate was in a lot of pain and he was going in immediately.

Bednar said Kuemper took a stick to the eye, leaving him with swelling. Kuemper will be re-evaluated and could be available Monday night for Game 4.

Colorado Avalanche goaltender Darcy Kuemper (35) is helped off the ice after getting injured during the first period in Game 3 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series against the Nashville Predators Saturday, May 7, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

“I didn’t even know that something like this could happen until today,” Francouz said. “I’ve never seen such an injury. It’s obviously scary that the stick can fit into the cage, but I think it’s a really small chance that something like this can happen.”

Matt Duchene, Eeli Tolvanen and captain Roman Josi each scored goals for Nashville. Alexandre Carrier had two assists.

This is the first time the Predators have trailed 0-3 in a series, and they will try to avoid being swept for the first time in their 15 playoff appearances.

“We have to win one,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “You look at it right now we’ve got a group that’s been resilient. We know what it is. And you’re not out of a series until it hits four.”

Colorado has simply dominated the Predators, outscoring them 16-6 with a 137-81 difference in shots through the first three games.

Lehkonen got the Avs on the board first yet again midway through the first on yet another Nashville penalty, deflecting a slap shot by Toews. MacKinnon made it 2-0 just 21 seconds into the Avs’ next man advantage at 16:07.

Duchene got Nashville on the board, scoring on a wrister at 17:37. Then Predators center Ryan Johansen’s stick caught Kuemper’s face, and Francouz replaced him in net.

The Predators managed to score twice on the man advantage in the second with Tolvanen scoring from the dot in the left face-off circle at 5:41. Landeskog beat Ingram with a backhander on the man advantage midway through the second for a 3-2 lead, then Josi tied it with a slap shot from the blue line at 12:11.

Landeskog scored his second at 14:02 to put Colorado ahead to stay.

The Avs got another man advantage when Nashville lost its challenge of Landeskog’s goal for Lehkonen interfering with Ingram. Predators forward Mikael Granlund was blamed for the contact. Ingram played the puck behind the net, lost the puck and Kadri scored into the open net just 39 seconds later for a 5-3 lead.

“That’s exactly the risk you take challenging sometimes,” Landeskog said. “That’s what we did last game, and we ended up getting a penalty on it. That was a big swing for sure, and we were able to get a bounce on the next power play and Naz cashes in. Definitely a big swing in the game.”

Toews padded the lead with a shot from the top of the left circle midway through the third.

KUEMPER HURT

The Avalanche goalie was hurt with 56.6 seconds left in the first as Johansen’s stick caught his face through the mask. Kuemper yanked the mask off and was down on the ice before skating to the locker room holding a towel to his face. He was 37-12-4 for Colorado during the regular season and won the first two games of this series.

“I don’t know exactly what happened or how it gets in there,” Bednar said of the stick. “It’s unfortunate is what I think. It’s an unfortunate play.”

PENALTY WOES

Nashville led the NHL in penalties during the regular season, and Colorado has converted 42.9% on the man advantage in this series thanks to this strong performance. Josi said he felt the Predators improved later in the season.

“They got so many great offensive players and you don’t want to put them on the power play, you don’t want to give them looks,” Josi said. “They made us pay for them.”

ROOKIE GOALIE

Ingram became the first rookie in Nashville history to start a playoff game in Game 2’s overtime loss on Thursday night. His 49 saves tied for most by a goalie in his first postseason start in the last 10 years and tied for the fourth-most saves by a Predators goalie in franchise history in the playoffs. Ingram stopped 79 of 83 shots faced over the first two games of this series after coming off the bench.

Originally posted on Pro Hockey Rumors | By Gavin Lee | Last updated 11/17/21

Every year there is a player or two from the KHL that piques the interest of teams in North America. They’re often undrafted talents from smaller Russian cities that may have been overlooked for years by NHL scouts. This year’s edition is Andrei Kuzmenko, who Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports is drawing “a lot of interest.”
Kuzmenko, born in Yakutsk–a city more than 3,000 miles from Moscow–and set to turn 26 in February, is in his fifth full season in the KHL and has 29 points in 26 games for SKA St. Petersburg. In all, the right-shot left-winger has 176 points in 296 KHL regular season games, but those numbers have steadily increased in recent years. While he’s still far behind the league-leading Vadim Shipachyov (another undrafted talent that was once the big name KHL free agent), those 29 points put Kuzmenko in a tie for sixth in KHL scoring.
This isn’t the first time Kuzmenko’s name has come up in relation to the NHL though, teams have been watching him for some time. Back in 2018, his North American agent Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey told Championat that 24 teams had expressed interest in his client. In the same interview, he spoke about the interest in Ilya Mikheyev and Artem Zub, who subsequently came over and found success. Those NHL scouts will be reminded of him often too, given he has spent time on the same line as potential 2023 first-overall pick Matvei Michkov.
Hugely skilled, there will be no shortage of hype for Kuzmenko should he decide to try his hand in North America next season. Whether he finds success is still to be determined, but there are certainly strong footsteps for him to follow. One interesting thing to consider is whether this hot start will get him onto the Russian Olympic roster, where he could potentially showcase himself against NHL talent.
This article first appeared on Pro Hockey Rumors

Andrew Kuzmenko interest has started peaking the last couple of weeks and NHL teams have been courting the the highly sought free agent as indicated by twitter messages below.

Most hockey people expect Kuzmenko to be on the starting roster of whatever lucky team signs him.

Stay tuned.