MacKinnon shines, depth shows up as Avs get back in the win column

Third game of a three-game roadtrip that did not get off to the start the the Colorado Avalanche  were hoping.

After dominating in Pittsburgh, a late push from the Penguins led to a 2-1 OT loss. Two nights later it was a brutal night in the team’s first visit to Tampa Bay since they hoisted the Stanley Cup in Amalie Arena last June, as they got walloped 5-0. 

In the process they lost Cale Makar to a hit to the head, and had injury scares for both Andrew Cogliano and Evan Rodrigues. 

They NEEDED a good night in Sunrise, Florida when they closed out this trip against the Florida Panthers. 

Process-wise, it was a good start right out of the gate. The Avs looked engaged, they looked fast, and they looked like they were playing with some real purpose. 

Given all of that, you just had to throw your head back when Erik Johnson got caught reaching and tripped up a Panthers forward. All that good to start the game, and now they’re on the penalty kill.

After getting the kill off to a relatively good start by not giving much in terms of high-danger chances, Andrew Cogliano and Logan O’Connor made a play at the blue line and were off to the races through the neutral zone. 

39 games after his last goal, O’Connor drove the net on the 2-on-1 and cleaned up a shot/pass from Cogliano, and the Avs were off and running. For O’Connor, you could just see the relief on his face. The Avalanche need depth contributions, and O’Connor was great early on in the season. To be fair, I think the effort from O’Connor has been there all season, but obviously when you go that long without a goal, it’s obvious that you can give more. 

That goal really seemed to energize the team. They easily got through the rest of the kill, and looked like they had some extra jump for the first time on this trip. 

The one blemish here, of course, comes in the form of an injury. As the penalty expired Johnson came out of the box to join the team’s defensive effort. Playing out of his normal position, Johnson sold out to block a point shot and took it right on the ankle. It looked like it caught him right in between the skate and shin pad. One of those tiny little unprotected areas. 

Johnson went down the tunnel immediately, and was putting no weight on his left leg. He did not return. 

Being down a defenseman really didn’t seem to have an effect on the Avs in the immediate, as they continued to pour on the pressure.

Less than five minutes after breaking the ice with a shorthanded goal, it was the Avs’ depth that helped get them the multi-goal lead that has seemed to elude them in some games recently. 

J.T. Compher made a fantastic pass coming out from behind the net, finding Matt Nieto out front standing (somehow) completely uncovered despite being surrounded by five red jerseys.

It was Nieto’s first (non-ENG) goal since being re-acquired by the Avs a few weeks ago, and it came at a great time. 

The first period was exactly the type of period the Avalanche needed to have (with the exception of the injury to Johnson). Strong offensive pressure, good commitment on defense, and Georgiev was really good. They were able to carry a 2-0 lead into the first intermission on the shoulders of their depth, and it was a nice reminder of what this team is capable of. 

The second period started with an immediate Nathan MacKinnon breakaway. Literally immediately. He went forward off the opening draw and somehow got in behind both Florida defenders, leading to a Grade-A scoring chance that Panther goaltender Segei Bobrovsky had to turn away. It looked like the Avs were maybe going to be able to cruise through the second. 

Give Florida credit, they definitely pushed back and were able to stop the Avs from running downhill in the middle frame. 

Another power play chance for the Panthers led to their best looks of the night to that point, but Alexandar Georgiev was up to the challenge, and was able to help preserve the two-goal lead early into the middle frame. 

You felt the push coming from the Panthers, and this is where the Avalanche have struggled in recent weeks. They haven’t been able to calm things down. Sure enough coming out of the first TV timeout of the game, it was a seeing-eye shot from Aaron Ekblad that eluded Georgiev and flipped the momentum of this game.

Ekblad threw one on from out high, and Georgiev never saw it. It looked to me like Ekblad was shooting for a tip, but it ended up acting like something of a changeup that Georigiev couldn’t track. 

I did not like the immediate response from the Avs. They seemed like they sagged a bit. Didn’t push back right away, and Florida took advantage.

Just minutes later, it was Sam Bennett who came down the right side and ripped one over the shoulder of Georgiev to even things at two. 

I’ll be honest, I did not like this goal for Georgiev. I am normally one to jump to the defense of goaltenders. It’s one of the hardest jobs in all of pro sports, and I think we can forget that at times. This one though, you just can’t get beat clean from that angle. Defenseman Kurtis MacDermid I thought did a decent job to keep Bennett to the outside and out of a dangerous area, and he still scored. Georgiev needed to have that one. 

For as much as I didn’t like the response to the first goal against, I loved the response from the Avs after they conceded the game-tying marker. 

We talked about the depth carrying the load early in the game, but after their lead evaporated it was the Avs’ stars that took over. 

The very next shift after Bennett tied the game, Colorado’s top line went out and controlled play immediately. They got the zone, worked the puck low to high, got a shot on net, and Devon Toews cleaned up in front. You literally could not have drawn it up any better. 

It was the perfect response. They didn’t hang their heads, they weren’t feeling sorry for themselves, their best players just went out and got to work. There was a real “we’re not gonna take it” vibe to the way Colorado’s best players started playing. 

Minutes later, after setting things in motion for the Toews goal, MacKinnon drew a tripping penalty and sent his team to the man-advantage. 

MacKinnon was a man possessed once the game was tied at two. He was not going to be denied. 

He was the one to draw the penalty, and he was the one to capitalize on it. 

A scramble out front caused the puck to leak out to the high slot, where MacKinnon corralled it, settled it, and ripped it over Bobrovsky’s glove to restore the two-goal lead. 

The Avs have struggled to stop the bleeding this season. They haven’t been able to throw cold water on situations that are getting out of hand, but that was exactly what they did here. Not only did restore their lead to head into the intermission, but they just erased any positive momentum that the Panthers had but. 

They did it by doing things the right way, that was the best part. No shortcuts, no cheating, just hard work and smart play. 

So despite four total goals in the period, we were heading into the third period in the exact same place we started the second… The Avalanche holding a two-goal lead. 

The first half of the third period went pretty much exactly how you wanted it to if you’re Colorado. A little push from Florida to start, but otherwise pretty uneventful, which you’re fine with if you’re protecting a two-goal lead. 

Just past the halfway mark of the period, what started as a fairly innocent looking breakout for the Panthers, turned into a scramble for the Avs to get back when a broken play at their own blue line led to a quick odd-man rush.

Sam Reinhart found Sasha Barkov on the backdoor, and it was officially “hold on to your butt” time for the Avs. 

Really, they did a good job of not making it eight minutes of chaos, but that final four minutes was absolutely tense. 

A pretty soft call on Evan Rodrigues gave Florida a power play, and it looked for a second like they had tied the game, but the puck rang off the post, and skipped harmlessly across the goal line, preserving the Avs narrow lead. 

I like what the Avs did at 6-on-5, they kept things to the outside, and let Georgiev get a clean look at pretty much everything. 

MacKinnon would cap off his outstanding game with the empty netter, and that was all she wrote. 

A huge sigh of relief to get the win there, and almost just as important…  I thought they played well.

We said at the start of the roadtrip that you really wanted 4 out of 6 points across the three games, while they came up one point shy of that mark, it’s still a trip you can be happy with, and now you’ve got some good feelings coming home, and hopefully some quality play and momentum to build on.