Postgame Notes & Quotes Edmonton Oilers 7, Colorado Avalanche
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Postgame Notes & Quotes Edmonton Oilers 7, Colorado Avalanche 4 Thursday, March 23, 2017 The Avalanche is now 0-2-0 against the Oilers in 2016-17 with one game remaining in the season series, which will be played Saturday night at Rogers Place in Edmonton. Nathan MacKinnon recorded his 200th NHL point with a two-assist night, bringing his point total for the season to a team-leading 47. MacKinnon is the second player from the 2013 draft class to reach the 200-point milestone, accomplishing the feat in 11 fewer games than Calgary Flames center Sean Monahan. With two goals in Thursday’s contest, Mikko Rantanen registered his fifth multi-point game and second multi-goal contest of his career. Sven Andrighetto tallied his sixth point since being acquired by the Avalanche on March 1 and now has two goals and four assists in 10 games with Colorado. Joe Colborne finished with two assists, his first multipoint game since recording a hat trick on Opening Night against Dallas. Leon Draisaitl extended his point streak to six game and has accumulated 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in that span. Andrej Sekera’s three points (one goal, two assists) ties a career high (Jan. 23, 2014 at Buffalo). With two goals and an assist, Jordan Eberle now has 27 points (14 goals, 13 assists) in 28 career games against the Avalanche. Colorado RW Mikko Rantanen On Losing The Lead In The Third Period: “I don’t know really. I feel like it happens every game. We lead in the third period, and then we just give up easy goals. We could have probably kept four of those away but we can’t do it.” On The Chemistry Playing With C Nathan MacKinnon: “We try to move the puck a lot. We try to keep moving our feet and trying to find open spots. Sven (Colorado RW Sven Andrighetto) is giving good chances there too so we as a group are finding the open ice and we just have to keep going like that. But like I said, we didn’t do enough to help the team.” Colorado D Mark Barberio On Improving In The Third Period: “It’s just focus. It comes down to just mentally being strong and being mentally aware out there. We have the talent to play with anybody in this league, it just comes down to mental breakdowns at the wrong time.” On The Team’s Defensive Effort In The First Two Periods: “The first few periods, we had really good gaps and good back pressure from our forwards. We were forcing them to slow down through the neutral zone, which they don’t want, they want to play a fast game. We just have to do it for 60 minutes. We keep saying it but we have to find a way.” Edmonton G Laurent Brossoit On Coming In Late In The Game: “I guess I’ve just been preparing for anything, and the games that I will get in will be games like that where I’m coming in for relief. Obviously, those aren’t the circumstances I want to go in, but I would like to contribute in any way, and I’m glad that I did tonight.” On The Team’s Third Period: “We just changed our energy level, you could tell that everyone was doing the details and little things and battling. It just showed, and it really kept them to the outside and helped me help them.” Edmonton C Mark Letestu On Tonight’s Game: “I am pleased with the third period, obviously coming back and getting the win. Not a good first two periods for us, seemed to lack some life, some emotion in the game, but we found that. Honestly, we just stuck with it. There wasn’t any rah-rah speech in here, nobody had to come in and flip a table or anything like that. We just stuck with it, we knew we had 20 minutes to make it right and credit to the guys that did that.” On Playing Against Colorado: “They’re not a bad hockey team over there, they got some talent. They come after you, we didn’t win a lot of faceoffs, we were chasing the puck a lot. It just turned for us in the third, you can just tell there was just more energy, more battle, more compete. We got the pucks and kept it alive and found a way to score some goals.” .