by Lawson Crouse scored a goal and Karel Vejmelka made 21 saves for Utah (4-3-1), which has lost four of five games.
“The lack of execution continued,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “I didn’t like our effort, I didn’t like our emotions, I didn’t like our physicality, I didn’t like our level of fighting. Tonight is disappointing.”
Defenseman Maveric Lamoureux, selected in the first round (No. 29) of the 2022 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut. He had three blocks, two hits and was plus-1 in 18:50 of ice time.
“I really enjoyed my game,” Lamoureux said. “I feel like things went uphill as the game went on. It started off pretty well and as the game went on I started to feel more and more comfortable and I really liked the way I played.”
Ross Colton gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 9:54 of the first period and scored his seventh goal of the season with a one-timer from the edge of the right circle off a pass from Rantanen.
However, Colton had to leave the game in the second period with an upper-body injury after Bednar said he “took a hit in the hand.”
“[He] “Wasn’t good enough to come back for this game, but we’ll just evaluate it again,” Bednar added. “Tomorrow is the day off, he will see the trainers tomorrow.” We will have a better idea on Saturday.
