The Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars in a not-so-exciting exhibition game at Ball Arena Saturday night. There was sloppy play on both sides of the 4-1 victory, but there was purpose to the game.
“I’m looking for our top guys to carry the play when they’re out there, and they did. Got some nice chances. Just defend the right way, good details, make sure we’re competitive,” head coach Jarede Bednar said. “And then the other guys are all playing against similar players from the other team. Want to see what they have and how involved they get, and if they’re able to make some plays on both sides of the puck. I thought we did that.”
Dallas’ lineup was a list of “who are these guys?” made up of young, mostly AHL players. The Avs played a handful of veterans — Nathan MacKinnon, Artturi Lehkonen, Ross Colton, Brent Burns, Parker Kelly, Victor Olofsson and Joel Kiviranta — with a mix of young players battling for a spot on the team.
Gavin Brindley scored his third goal of the preseason. He is vying for a fourth-line spot and is ahead in the running.
“Game two, a little bit more comfortable. Just got to keep going from here,” Brindley said after the win.
“Just keep working hard and focusing on the details. That’s the biggest thing in these camps, is just focusing on the details and getting better every day. So just keep building every day and see what happens.”
Scott Wedgewood played the first two periods, giving up one goal from Stars forward Antonio Stranges with two and a half seconds left in the middle frame. He only faced a total of seven shots. The result of the exhibition game is not the most important aspect — getting game time in is.
“Just routine stuff, feeling the traffic. Some things you can’t simulate as much as or as hard as you try in practice — the net front traffic and seeing through different lines,” Wedgewood said. “You get 400 shots of practice, and get whatever it was, nine in two periods, or whatever the case may be. Conditioning’s good, it’s more just the situational stuff and being as clean as you can through certain exchanges.”
Brindley scored the first goal of the game halfway through the second period, and Artturi Lehkonen netted the game-winner less than four minutes into the final period. Avs prospect Zakhar Bardakov upped the lead off a perfectly placed pass from Lehkonen, and Tristen Nielsen sealed the game with an empty-netter.
In his first game action with the Avs, Brent Burns earned an assist, was a plus-1 and had two SOG in his 22:02 minutes of ice time. He played on the top power-play unit with MacKinnon, Lehkonen, Colton and Olofsson. Both PP units struggled to produce, and none of the goals came on the man-advantage.
Colorado faces off against the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena on Tuesday. Bednar said cuts will be made before then, and the lineup will be a mixture of veterans and rookies.
