Avalanche’s Mikko Rantanen to miss “weeks” with upper-body injury suffered in overtime loss to Lightning

The Avalanche injury difficulty is snowballing.

Forward Mikko Rantanen endured an apparent shoulder injury Monday night in Colorado’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Lightning and is predicted to miss “months,” coach Jared Bednar informed reporters. It led from a tripping punishment in the second stage on Tampa Bay defenseman Erik Cernak, sending Rantanen crashing into the boards.

Rantanen was in pain and obviously preferred his left shoulder as he exited the Pepsi Center ice on the tube for therapy. Colorado advised it as a upper-body injury, and Rantanen was ruled out for a return.

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Rantanen joins a growing list of injured Avalanche players: goalie Philipp Grubauer (daily ), forward Matt Calvert (week to week), forward Nazem Kadri (week to week) and ahead Colin Wilson (indefinite).

“Other men have to step up,” Bednar said. “It’s a great opportunity. We have to discover a way like we did earlier in the year to carve out wins. It ’ s going to get tougher and tougher, but as soon as possible, we can get those guys healthy and back to joining our staff. Guys are going to get opportunities and call-ups. … Guys which have been here and are wanting more time, we’ll see what they’ve got. ”

Rantanen formerly missed 16 games this season in October-November with a foot injury. He’s recorded 41 points (19 goals) over 42 matches played this season. On Monday night, Rantanen aided on Colorado’s opening goal to forward Andre Burakovsky.

The Avalanche (33-19-6) sponsor the New York Islanders (33-19-6) on Wednesday to complete a five-game homestand. Colorado is 1-3-0 over its four matches.



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