Ouch.

Black eyes, bruised knuckles and another crushing defeat.

This 1 hurt.

Going into Monday’s matinee at the Pepsi Center — and as the Avalanche planned to gather a winning series for the first time since Nov. 28 — the Predators looked as good of a matchup as any so as to inject some mojo back to Colorado’s year old.

Nashville had been sliding, falling two straight and four of its final five, and Colorado had a shot at closing the gap on second position at the Central Division to six points. A scoreless first period was promising, with the Avs prepared to get a physical affair with the group who sent them packing in the controversial early round of the playoffs past April. But this was about the only real positive takeaway from a 4-1 defeat.

Nashville owned the second time with a trio of intentions, along with the Avs’ crime was mostly overrun by Predators goalie Pekka Rinne. Colorado’s frustrating funk (7-13 because Dec. 1) lasted.

“To come out immediately, feed off the audience and be able to play that kind of bodily match allowed us to get our legs underneath us together with everyone feeling optimistic,” Matt Nieto stated. “But we must keep that going for three phases. That’s the consequences we now ’ve been on the lookout for lately. ”

There were three conflicts in the opening period independently, but Colorado couldn’t money in on four fines — and nearly 11 seconds worth of power performs — as Rinne submitted five saves while Semyon Varlamov matched his tally on the other end of the ice.

“We deserved to have a lead there first, however, we couldn’t vie on our scoring opportunities,” winger Mikko Rantanen said. “And at the next, if we really needed it, we didn’t have good chemistry and didn’t produce any opportunities to score targets. ”

Nashville’s Colin Blackwell initially got the fists flying once he awakened Sven Andrighetto less than two minutes into the match, prompting Patrik Nemeth to immediately engage Blackwell. Nikita Zadorov followed a couple of minutes later with a huge hit Calle Jarnkrok, causing Zadorov and Austin Watson to begin a brawl which resulted in both serving five-minute majors.

From the time another fight sparked behind the Predators’ net near the end of the period of time, it was obvious Colorado had come out with an edge similar to the one it was in Saturday’s 7-1 home rout of the Kings.

“The first time might have been among the best periods of the year,” Avs coach Jared Bednar stated. “We were getting under their skin. We were giving them move … We frustrated them, and we could’t earned another penalty or two. ”

But the momentum nor the scoreboard leaned in the Avalanche’s favor at the next, if Rinne stonewalled Nieto to a penalty shot early before the Predators lit the lamp within 90 seconds to shoot a 2-0 advantage.

“We made a couple of mistakes and they capitalized,” Bednar stated. “They made mistakes, too, and we didn’t even empathize. But the gap was Rinne. ”

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To get Nashville’s strike, Zadorov’s cluttered turnover in the defensive zone setup Nick Bonino’s goal via Varlamov’s legs at the 14:49 mark. Soon after, Viktor Arvidsson defeat Colorado defenders the ice down to Filip Forsberg’s pass, wrapped around the back of the net and scored on a too-slow Varlamov on the opposing side of the pipes.

“Those two goals clearly changed the game a little and made it a bit more uneven,” Colin Wilson stated. “But we only need to figure out ways to score more goals. We harbor ’t done so lately. ”

In the latter half of the second, Colorado’s crime pressed Rinne along with the Nashville defense farther, revealing the same life the Avalanche came out with at the first whistle. The Predators’ defense eventually broke with 3:17 left in the interval when Samuel Girard‘s pass into Alex Kerfoot was dying home to liven up the home audience.

But the power was short lived, as Nashville got the goal back 75 moments after when Roman Josi skated behind the Colorado shield to get a free look on Varlamov from the left wing circle.  Josi wristed it home as Nashville took a 3-1 lead into the third, in which Rinne (35 total conserves ) continued to flip away Avalanche advances en route to coach Peter Laviolette’s 600th career win.

Ryan Ellis included an empty-net goal when Colorado pulled Varlamov in favour of an extra attacker because of last-ditch effort to find a puck beyond the Venza Trophy winner. But shooting Rinne on Monday was just like punching a brick wall.

Ouch.

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