{"id":693097,"date":"2026-05-25T07:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/693097\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T07:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:56:08","slug":"makars-return-not-enough-avalanche-pushed-to-brink-in-game-3-of-western-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/693097\/","title":{"rendered":"Makar\u2019s return not enough, Avalanche pushed to brink in Game 3 of Western Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

That puck-moving ability was on display early, as Makar helped the Avalanche get the puck out of their zone and generate second waves of attack offensively. Those waves seemed to catch the Golden Knights off guard in the first, and it also freed up defense partner Devon Toews<\/a>, who created the opportunity that led to Landeskog’s opening goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest difference I noticed for us tonight is the blue line ability and being able to help create some scoring chances against a team that is good in their coverage up top and make it difficult up top to find shooting lanes,” Bednar said. “(Makar) has the feet to be able to find the shot and the ability to help us in that area, which he did a lot tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite having its difference-maker back in the lineup, the tide still shifted for Colorado early in the second period.<\/p>\n

Mark Stone<\/a> scored on a power play 19 seconds in, William Karlsson<\/a> added a second at 4:05, and Keegan Kolesar<\/a>\u00a0tied the game 3-3 with a redirection in front that bounced past Scott Wedgewood<\/a>\u00a0and sat on the goal line before the Vegas forward knocked it into the net to tie it 3-3 at 12:46.<\/p>\n

Just like that, any momentum gained by Makar’s return was just as quickly lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur season is on the line,\u201d Makar said. \u201cSo, our mentality’s been like that and should have been like that today. I felt like it was desperate at times, but as I said, it was just that we gave them a couple too many opportunities. They capitalized on that.<\/p>\n

“I wish I could have done a little bit more. I definitely was a passenger for a bit tonight, but yeah, we\u2019ve got to find a way to weather (second period) it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado took another hit at 12:15 of the second when star forward Nathan MacKinnon<\/a>\u00a0was dropped by a shot from Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MacKinnon had to be helped off the ice with an apparent right leg injury. He gutted it out for two more shifts before the end of the second and four in the third, but it was obvious the reigning Maurice Richard Trophy winner was laboring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough, he sells out for a shot block, and unfortunately it’s obviously because of a bad turnover from us,\u201d Makar said. \u201cAnd then just giving them those opportunities in the first place, so shouldn\u2019t happen.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That puck-moving ability was on display early, as Makar helped the Avalanche get the puck out of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-693097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}