The Colorado Avalanche entered this game off the back of a humiliating 7-0 defeat yesterday against the Winnipeg Jets. Meanwhile, the Vegas Golden Knights took advantage of a 7-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Friday night to officially clinch the final playoff spot out West.
With the season series even at one for both teams with shutout victories on home ice, each looked to get the edge over the other. In the final road game for the Avs this regular season, they looked to end it, particularly on a high note in a bounce-back performance. Here’s how it all went down.
First Period
Colorado held off an early charge by Vegas and turned some momentum in their favor. The first line started it with a nice shift, forcing some big saves out of Adin Hill. But they finally got some puck luck going their way, with Ross Colton sneaking one behind Hill at a tight angle to get the lead.
Then the stars would convert after leading the offensive charge. Nathan MacKinnon turned and found Cale Makar with a brilliant pass through the Golden Knights’ defense. Makar couldn’t miss, and Colorado had a two-goal lead.
They kept getting chances from the first line, and another great one from Josh Manson which was denied by the glove of Hill. Alexandar Georgiev still kept himself sharp at the other end as well, with a big save on a streaking Tomas Hertl in the slot.
While Sean Walker braced a big hit from Keegan Kolesar, one of his defensive partners Devon Toews drew a hooking penalty from Pavel Dorofeyev. The power play would carry over to the second, with the Avs looking to extend their lead.
Second Period
After each team killed off early respective penalties, Vegas thought they got on the board thanks to a Tomas Hertl deflection in front. But, Hertl ran into Georgiev and the goal was called back after Jared Bednar challenged the play.
Mikko Rantanen got a couple of looks, but all of them found the pads of Hill. But, he didn’t have to wait for long to convert. Josh Manson completed a beautiful pass to the Moose, which he deflected in for the third goal of the game.
Colorado then felt the press from the Golden Knights. They were pushing for at least one goal before the intermission came. But, Georgiev came up big with some massive saves to keep the scoreline at 3-0 with 20 minutes to go.
Third Period
While the Avs looked in control, it would be Vegas pushing really hard to come back from their 3-0 deficit. It started with Ivan Barbashev finishing off a wraparound which caught Makar out, getting the Knights on the board.
After Jack Eichel hit the post flying through the Avs’ defense, his teammates would eventually find the twine. Manson took an interference penalty, leading to William Karlsson finding some net behind Georgiev which he didn’t cover to get Vegas within one.
The Avs looked as though they controlled the fire, especially when Jonathan Drouin found the crossbar on a golden chance for an insurance goal. Instead, it would be Karlsson being left alone to score and tie it up.
Vegas would press extremely hard looking for a regulation winner, with Colorado hanging on for dear life. They didn’t get much help from Manson, who took a high-sticking penalty with 10 seconds left in regulation which carried over to OT.
Overtime
We didn’t have to wait long for an overtime winner. It would come from the Golden Knights, who completed their comeback with a Hertl power play-winning deflection in front.
Yeti Takeaways
It looked oh-so-good for the first 40 minutes of the game. Colorado bounced back brilliantly to start, with Georgiev looking great making some key saves. But it all fell apart and ran off the rails in a bad, bad way. The entire confidence of the team looks shot, and especially after their recent performances in the last week. It is far from what you want to see going into the playoffs at this time next week.
Some other personal player notes: Miles Wood returned from injury and got one assist in his 13:39 of ice time. Sam Girard exited the lineup in concussion protocol after he left yesterday’s game with the injury and inadvertent hit by Colton. Caleb Jones filled in his spot with a -1 and didn’t stand out too much in 16:08 of ice time. Neither made much of a difference in this game in terms of the end result. It’s one of those games where you miss players like Logan O’Connor and Gabriel Landeskog who can battle and play a lot harder on the puck than what we’ve seen in the last few games.
Colorado has won only three of their last 10 games in this stretch, and it has not been pretty up and down the lineup. Everyone has to look in the mirror and see if they can and want to make a deep run. They need to find a way to get their confidence back up because it is not there right now. They’ve practically lost home-ice advantage, needing the Jets to lose their final two games in regulation while the Avs need to win their last game. How they went from contending to win the Central Division to all but losing home-ice advantage is a disaster, to say the least.
Next on the Mountain
One final regular season game awaits at home Thursday night against the Edmonton Oilers. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. MT.