Devon Toews’ late goal lifts Avalanche to win over Coyotes

There were moments Sunday afternoon that could have confounded the Colorado Avalanche, a club desperate to dig out of a recent slump.

Eventually, the Avs’ top players created one sequence of brilliance and it was enough for a much-needed win. Devon Toews scored with 6:43 remaining on a shot set up by Nathan MacKinnon’s will and Jonathan Drouin’s skill, and the Avs prevailed with a 4-3 victory against the Arizona Coyotes.

“It’s never going to as smooth as you plan,” Avs coach Jared Bednar. “In order to be successful, you have to be mentally tough. There was never a sense that I had on the bench that we were fragmenting and going on our own way. That we weren’t sticking to the plan and trusting the process.”

This contest was filled with delays, penalties and coach’s challenges. The Avs controlled play for long stretches, but couldn’t separate from the pesky Coyotes. Colorado won for just the second time in seven tries since the All-Star break, and this was an important one after a disappointing road trip.

MacKinnon went behind the Coyotes’ net and was met by defenseman J.J. Moser, but the Avs superstar went through the attempted check and held onto the puck. He sent it into the slot for Drouin, whose deft one-touch play set up Toews for a blast from the left point.

“(This) was a much better effort, probably better than any game we played on the road trip,” Toews said. “We are just trying to get back to our game, consistently playing our game in our structure.”

There were significant bright spots. Bo Byram had his third-straight multi-point game. Jack Johnson had a goal and an assist. MacKinnon had a typically impactful, dominant effort and finished with two points.

There were also some concerns. The Avs have been plagued by momentary lapses after long stretches of carrying the play, and that happened again Sunday. Colorado also took too many penalties, got pulled out of alignment on the penalty kill for a goal and did not score despite copious chances with the man advantage.

Even though the Coyotes had lost eight straight, the Avs were left to hang on in the final minutes, including a 4-on-6 situation for the final 81 seconds.

“We’ve had tough games against these guys all year,” Johnson said. “That didn’t surprise me. We knew it was going to be a tough night and they have some really good offensive players. We knew there had to be a big emphasis on defending.”

The Avs took an early lead when Miles Wood set up Ross Colton for his 12th goal of the season 4:10 into the first, but Coyotes defenseman Mathew Dumba scored on the rebound of a Alex Kerfoot shot and Lawson Crouse made it 2-1 with a power-play tally.

The Avalanche had lots of chances to score a power-play goal of its own in the second period. Colorado had eight minutes with the extra man, including a double-minor, and racked up 13 shots on net without scoring.

The second period was certainly a test of mental toughness. The Avs dominated the puck, racked up 21 shots on net and only yielded 0.2 expected goals. And yet it was still a 3-3 game after 40 minutes because the Coyotes converted one of the few chances they had.