Henderson’s offense stalls against Colorado despite Raphael Lavoie’s scoring surge

Raphael Lavoie is still the clearest sign of what Henderson lost

Raphael Lavoie carried Henderson into the spring with the kind of scoring burst that usually changes a playoff bracket. The 25-year-old finished the regular season with 30 goals and 56 points in just 45 games, then added three more goals in the first-round sweep of San Jose before Colorado shut him down. That contrast is the story here: one of the AHL’s most dangerous finishers has gone quiet just as the games got heavier.

Lavoie’s run was not a short hot streak. He put together a 16-game point streak from March 11 through April 14, scored 13 goals in 14 March games to win Fortune Tires’ “Expect More” AHL Player of the Month, and ripped off a stretch of 24 goals in 26 games. Henderson built much of its season around that kind of pace, so when his touch disappeared against Colorado, the entire offensive identity started to look fragile.

The Silver Knights’ scoring slump is a sharp break from their regular-season profile

Henderson did not arrive in the playoffs as a plucky lower-seed trying to survive on goaltending alone. The Silver Knights led the AHL in scoring at 3.65 goals per game and owned the league’s best power play at 26.0 percent, a profile that made them feel like a team built to trade chances and overwhelm opponents. That is what makes the current drought so striking.

Through the first three games against Colorado, Henderson managed only four goals and 80 shots in more than 10 periods of play. That is the kind of drop-off that changes not just a series, but the way a team is evaluated. The volume is there, at least to a point, but the finish has vanished, and the league’s top scoring club has suddenly been forced into a much smaller offensive lane.

This is the deeper regression Colorado is exposing. Henderson’s regular-season attack was defined by pace, pressure and special teams, but the Eagles have stripped away the rhythm that made those strengths matter. When a team that averaged 3.65 goals a night is held to four goals over 10-plus playoff periods, the issue is not just bad luck. It is a structural breakdown in timing, conversion and confidence.

Colorado has dictated the terms with Miner in full control

The series has been a tug-of-war only in Game 2. Colorado opened with a 1-0 win in Game 1 at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, then Henderson answered with a 4-3 double-overtime victory to keep the matchup alive. Game 3 swung back hard to the Eagles, a 4-0 shutout at Blue Arena in Loveland that left Henderson searching for a goal long before the final horn.

Trent Miner has been the central figure in that squeeze. After Game 3, he was 4-1 in the postseason with a 0.94 goals-against average, a .960 save percentage and three shutouts. He also became the first AHL goaltender since Rochester’s Mika Noronen in 2000 to open a postseason with three shutouts in five starts, which tells you how completely he has removed oxygen from opposing offenses.

Colorado’s Game 3 win was not just about stopping Henderson; it was about reinforcing the message that the Eagles can win a series by making every shift feel expensive. Tristen Nielsen, Alex Gagne, Tye Felhaber and Alex Barré-Boulet all found the net, while Henderson goalie Carl Lindbom stopped 23 of 26 shots in a game where the Knights were again forced to chase. The only comeback pressure Henderson has managed in the series came in Game 2, and Colorado has already answered by taking a 2-1 lead.

Missing pieces have made the scoring drought harder to solve

Henderson’s offense was already under strain before Colorado tightened the screws. Defenseman Dylan Coghlan had been on recall to the Vegas Golden Knights for the past two games of the series, and forward Matyas Sapovaliv missed Game 3. Sapovaliv, who finished his second AHL season with 18 goals, is one of the additional finishers Henderson needed once Colorado started compressing the ice.

That absence matters because Henderson’s spring surge was never just about Lavoie alone. Trevor Connelly’s 15-game scoring streak in March was the longest in team history, and the club’s run from eighth place in the Pacific at the All-Star break to third place came during a 22-3-1-3 charge. That climb, from six points out of a playoff spot to a top-three finish, showed a team that could recover, adjust and stack wins fast.

The 2025-26 roster also had the sort of depth that usually supports a playoff push, with Alexander Holtz, Tanner Laczynski, Brett Howden, Lucas Cormier, Jeremy Davies and Jaycob Megna all part of the picture under head coach Ryan Craig. But depth only matters if the top end is producing enough to force defenses to stretch. Against Colorado, Henderson has not done that.

What restoring the offense would actually change

If Henderson can rediscover the version of itself that led the AHL in scoring, this series changes quickly. The reason is simple: the Knights already proved they can score in bursts, rally from deficit and play with enough urgency to climb the standings from the middle of the pack to the top tier. Their first-round sweep of San Jose, after the comeback win over Tucson on April 4 that sent them back to the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2022, showed a team with real offensive ceiling.

But this Colorado matchup is also a test of whether that ceiling survives playoff conditions. If Lavoie starts converting again, if the power play regains its edge and if Henderson gets even one line rolling with pace, the Eagles no longer control the conversation. If the drought continues, the evaluation shifts from a single series to the larger question of whether Henderson’s regular-season scoring was a style that only worked when the ice was open.

That is the stakes-driven truth of this matchup: Henderson already showed it can rise from the standings basement into a contender’s posture, but Colorado has forced the Silver Knights to prove the offense was more than a regular-season rush. Until the goals return, the Eagles will keep setting the terms.