- Colorado Holds Off Edmonton after four-goal lead
- Oilers’ Underdog Status Realized After Six-Goal Effort
- Offensive Show Explained Game 1 Storyline
Colorado Holds off Late Oilers’ Assault for Game 1 Conquest
Colorado’s J.T. Compher proved to be the only player to score more than one goal in Tuesday evening’s 8-6 Avalanche win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of the NHL’s Western Conference Finals.
He scored the first Avalanche goal at 15:40 to tie the game at 1-1 and then gave Colorado breathing room in the second period on his second score. It came off of assists from Cale Maker and Devon Toews which gave the Avalanche a 6-3 margin at 6:20 in that second period. With the Avalanche posting a 7-4 lead after two periods, Colorado had to prove it’s metal once again when Edmonton’s Derek Ryan scored at 3:28 of the third period and then Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on a power-play goal at 12:36.
This cut the score to 7-6 and allowed the Oilers the opportunity to put heat on a Colorado defense that had given up 2.83 goals per game in the 82-game regular season.
It was the largest number of goals in an Oilers playoff game since only two weeks ago when the Flames opened the Oilers-Flames series with a 9-6 win.
Of note for Colorado was the injury to goalie Darcy Kuemper, who had to leave the game with an upper-body injury during the first TV timeout of the third period. This occurred after Edmonton pulled its goalie, Mike Smith, who gave up six goals in 25 shots in around 25 game minutes.
Of note, the Oilers and Los Angeles Kings combined for 18 goals in 1982 for the most in a playoff game which was a 10-8 Kings win.
FIVE goals in the first period of the Oilers vs. Avalanche.
This series is already delivering! 🔥
— RotoRadar (@RotoRadar) June 1, 2022
Avalanche Continue the Persona of Western Conference Favorite
Colorado continues as a favorite (-440) in this series with the Oilers checking in at (+350). The Avalanche opened last night’s series as a (-200) favorite and the OVER/UNDER in the game was set at 7.
The Avalanche were 2-1-0 vs. the Oilers in the regular-season series as the Avs were favored at the top NHL betting sites by (-190), (-160) and (-110).
Both Teams Stressed The Offensive in Game 1’s Epic Entertainment
Edmonton’s Zack Hyman tied Game 1 at 2-2 at 19:37 in the first period and then some nine seconds later, Colorado took the 3-2 lead at the first break when Cale Maker scored his fourth goal of the playoffs with his own tone of immediacy for the Avalanche.
This was at an even closer pace than the first two goals of the evening as Edmonton’s Evander Kane put the Oilers up 1-0 at 5:04 before Compher’s first goal of the evening came for the Avalanche at 5:40. For the game, Colorado outshot the Oilers, 47-37, although Edmonton had a 36-31 advantage on the face-off. The Oilers outhit the Avs, 46–34, in what was potentially a scene-setter for the rest of the series.
Edmonton’s top two offensive players in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were once again at their high calibers in assists with 21 each in the playoffs. Both had two assists each as they both assisted Nugent-Hopkins’ on his third-period marker.
