The Vegas Golden Knights look to get back in their series with the Colorado Avalanche when they play Game 3 on Friday. Colorado holds a 2-0 lead in the series.
Here you can find the best picks, news, and stats for this Central Division battle at T-Mobile Arena. Colorado is the favorite at -116. This according to PointsBet Sportsbook, which puts Vegas at -105 as the underdog.
Colorado will be missing Matt Calvert, Pavel Francouz, Dennis Gilbert, Erik Johnson, Nazem Kadri, Jayson Megna, and Logan O’Connor. Vegas will be missing Brayden McNabb. Tomas Nosek, Ryan Reaves, Mattias Janmark, and Robin Lehner are listed as questionable.
Rantanen Wins It for Avalanche in OT
Mikko Rantanen scored 2:07 into overtime to give Colorado the 3-2 victory. Brandon Saad and Tyson Jost added goals as well. Philipp Grubauer was excellent in net, stopping 38 of 41 shots.
Colorado is averaging 5.00 goals per game in the playoffs and is connecting on 14.5% of their shots. They are hitting on 43.5% of power-play opportunities. Nathan MacKinnon leads the Avalanche with eight goals and 13 points. Rantanen now has 10 points.
The Avalanche are allowing 1.67 goals per game and are killing off 78.6% of short-handed situations. Grubauer is fantastic. He is now 6-0 with a 1.66 GAA and a .943 save percentage.
Vegas Falls in OT
The Golden Knights lost in OT on Wednesday, dropping the first two games in Denver. Alec Martinez and Reilly Smith scored for Vegas. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 of 25 shots.
The Golden Knights are allowing 2.56 goals per game and are killing off 72.7% of short-handed situations. Fleury has been great during the playoffs, posting a 1.86 GAA and a .924 save percentage. However, he has allowed 11 total goals over his last four starts, including three in three of the four contests.
The Golden Knights are averaging 2.56 goals per game and are connecting on 7.9% of their shot attempts. Vegas is averaging 15.0% on the power-play. Mattias Janmark, Mark Stone, Alex Touch, William Karlsson, and Chandler Stephenson are all tied for the team lead with six points in the playoffs. Stone has the most goals at four.
Trends:
Colorado:
- None
Vegas:
- 38-14 in their last 52 games at home.
- 44-21 in their last 61 games.
NHL Picks
They say that you never declare a winner in a playoff series until one team losing at home. This is why I am a little surprised why oddsmakers expect Colorado to win this game. The Golden Knights have been awesome at home and I expect that to be the case here as well. They will win this game, getting themselves back into the series.
Pick: Take Vegas at -105.
The Total:
This is going to be a must-win situation for Vegas and I expect them to pull out all the stops. They are going to be generating as much offense as they can and will have a raucous crowd behind them. I think that this drives up the score, and I would not be surprised if as many as seven goals are scored in this game. Go over and look for the Golden Knights to get at least four goals, maybe even five.
Pick: Go over 5.5 at -105.