The second meeting between Colorado and Columbus in the Tampere Arena on Saturday 5.11. at 8 p.m. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena and app starting at 7:45 p.m.
Hockey’s NHL landed in Tampere when the Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets met in the Global Series match.
Colorado’s start to the match was really strong. The team put pressure on Columbus’ end with their puck play, and they didn’t even have to wait two minutes for the opening goal.
At the end of the direct attack Logan O’Connor was able to shoot from the best scoring sector and tapped the puck into the goal with his wrist. Columbus’s defense opened up unbelievably easily.
The first quarter was all Colorado. The team doubled their lead By JT Compher with an overpowering hit. The man directed Devon Toews blue line shot to the goal, when it was 12:27 on the game clock.
Towards the end of the set Mikko Rantanen took a two-minute break. Columbus was able to create a couple of good scoring opportunities with superiority, but still failed to score its first superiority goal of the season.
The nature of the opening set is described by the firing statistics. Colorado shot at the goal 16 times, Columbus seven. Sports expert Ismo Lehkonen hekumed after the set with Colorado’s offensive play.
– This puck playing in the attack zone is out of place, the guys change, those without the puck move. Let’s go through contact and make room. The passing skill is so incredibly good, top of the NHL.
Special situations changed the course of the game
The second set started with almost a repeat of the opening set. Colorado scored its third goal just over half a minute into the game. The game was boring already 3–0.
Columbus lost the puck in typical early season fashion, this time the culprit was the star forward Johnny Gaudreau. Rantanen got to enjoy passing the puck wonderfully Elvis Merzlikins.
After this, a more energetic approach to the opening set and special situations brought Columbus into the game. The team succeeded with superiority when Patrik Laine a hard wrist flick guided him to the finish line Jakub Voracek.
The team got energy from the success and was able to shake Colorado with their more aggressive play.
Laine brought the Blue Jackets into the goal during the postponed penalty with a nice wrist shot. A hard shot sank Alexander Georgiev from between the legs to the goal.
Colorado took a total of eight minutes of ice time in the second period. When Columbus took two “seconds”, the game became very violent. Laine was able to shoot several times in the set, but Columbus did not manage to tie the game during his strong phase. Colorado went into the second break with a 3–2 lead.
– We took too many ice breaks, it’s hard to win like that. A few puck losses came in the middle area, which cannot happen. Columbus started to play better, and we couldn’t respond, Rantanen analyzed in the halftime interview.
The evening ended with a Finnish party
The beginning of the third period was the opposite of the previous ones. Columbus leveled up when Sean Kuraly was able to hit the puck from in front of the goal into the Colorado net. The hit was preceded by a quick end game, after which by Eric Robinson the pass came with a favorable assist from the Colorado defense in front of the goal.
Before the halfway point of the set, we saw the so-called Finnish moment. Patrik Laine took to the ice while whining Artturi from Lehko. During this freeze, Mikko Rantanen put Colorado in the lead again.
This changed the direction of the game again, because only a moment later Colorado’s first string hit again. Nathan MacKinnon and Rantanen started the place beautifully Cale to Makarwho struck spectacularly for Colorado’s two-goal run away.
After the fifth setback, Columbus looked depressed and the team could not get a dangerous streak going again. Merzlikins was taken off the field in good time and the blue jackets applied for reduction with six players for more than three minutes. However, this did not bring results.
Vice versa. “Nousiainen härkä” Rantanen struck once more, finished his wonderful night with his third goal and the Colorado party was over. The final score in a goal-rich match was 6–3.
Colorado’s Lehkonen was left without power points when the team won, but worked hard in the underpowered game.
– Quite a broken game, a lot of overpowering and underpowering. Fortunately, we got two points, that’s the big deal. It takes a lot of energy to be underpowered, but it’s good to be given responsibility.
– “Rane” took the team on his back again, it’s great to see, Lehkonen praised his teammate who made 3+1.
The losing team’s Laine was clearly more sour in the interviews.
– The crappy taste remained, zero surface remained. That’s the only thing that matters. It doesn’t matter if I scored five points myself.
Laine took the ice in the third period, after which Colorado scored a goal.
– Halfway, if otherwise, there was an ice break, now it just happened to me. I had a bit of bad luck. All credit to the guy, when they got tough in that situation.
Patrik Laine and other Columbus players left the rink with their heads down. The team will get a chance for revenge tomorrow, when the teams meet at the same arena again at 20:00.
Colorado Avalanche:
Mikko Rantanen 3+1
Nathan MacKinnon 0+4
Cale Makar 1+1
Devon Toews 0+2
Logan O’Connor 1+0
JT Compher 1+0
Evan Rodrigues 0+1
Erik Johnson 0+1
Samuel Girard 0+1
Alex Newhook 0+1
Columbus Blue Jackets:
Patrik Laine 1+1
Jakuc Voracek 1+0
Sean Kuraly 1+0
Boone Jenner 0+1
Zach Werenski 0+1
Johnny Gaudreau 0+1
Liam Foudy 0+1
Eric Robinson 0+1