Bednar: 'Relief' for Avalanche after surviving Dostal's gem for 1st win
The Colorado Avalanche had to survive a 45-save effort from Anaheim Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal, but head coach Jared Bednar's squad can now take a deep breath after collecting its first win of the season.
"You don't want to drop too many because we know how hard it's gonna be to climb out of that hole. It is a relief," Bednar said after Colorado's 4-3 overtime victory on Friday night. "More importantly, I think, than relief, it's looking past that. It's the guys getting rewarded, finally, for playing the right way."
He added, "To be 0-4 really stings, and 0-5 would be that much worse, especially when you're playing that hard and playing the right way as a group and staying positive. It's tough to stay positive if you don't ever get results. That'll go a long way."
It was a resilient win for the Avalanche, who were outscored 25-13 through their first four games of the campaign. Colorado closed out the first period trailing 2-0 following a bizarre goal by Ryan Strome in the frame's final minute. The puck hit the netting behind the goal, but the referees didn't blow the sequence dead, and the Ducks took advantage of the confusion as the Avs slowed down play.
Despite that potential momentum-killer, Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said his teammates kept their heads up.
"Probably the most positive we've been all year, to be completely honest with you," he said of Colorado being down by a pair, per Guerilla Sports. "I felt like we came out of that first period knowing that they were dying down and we could kind of jump on them."
Colorado scored the next three goals and recovered with Nathan MacKinnon's overtime winner after Anaheim tied things up with 13 seconds left in regulation.
MacKinnon said he wants to see a similar drive from the Avs in their next outing against the San Jose Sharks.
"We've gotta treat Sunday like we're down 2-0 because we got a lot of ground to make up," he said. "It's one win. It's not like we're going crazy here. We're a Cup favorite. But it's still a fun win to get."
Makar was pleased to see Colorado "find a way" despite getting "goalied" by Dostal. The 24-year-old saved 1.57 goals above expected at all strengths during the contest, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Ducks bench boss Greg Cronin praised his netminder's "incredible" performance in the defeat after his team was outshot 49-20.
"Just amazing," he said, per The Hockey News' Derek Lee. "We were just so fortunate to be in the game. They had doubled, tripled the shots at one point. They played with a playoff urgency. They had us on our heels the whole night, and he kept us in the game."