Resiliency is the trademark of an Avalanche team that refuses to go away

Playoff hockey brings a different feel to the arena. Every shift matters, every puck bounce could change the game, every little detail on the ice could mean the difference between winning and losing.

In elimination games, that feeling is amplified by a hundred. Or a thousand. Or a million. It feels like life and death, like every day of practice and every minute of every game beginning back in the preseason in September leading up to that night was simply preparation for survival.

Facing their mortality for the first time this postseason, the Avalanche didn’t blink. They got pushed to the brink by the San Jose Sharks in a thrilling Game 6 that went back and forth until Colorado put them away on the back of a Gabe Landeskog overtime goal.

Now the series shifts back to the SAP Center in San Jose for Game 7, a winner-take-all affair that will mean vastly different things to each team. The Sharks have been here for years, an era defined mostly by playoff disappointments and failing to capitalize on Hall of Fame talent like Joe Thornton. They’ve gone all-in on this season, a last hurrah of sorts before the economic realities of salary cap-era hockey sets in and forces the team to make tough decisions. Should they fail again, it will without a doubt go down as an era of missed opportunities for a franchise still seeking its first Stanley Cup.

On the other side, you have a team looking to learn from San Jose’s failures. They serve as a reminder that no matter how talented you are, no matter how many All-Stars you have, winning a Stanley Cup is extremely difficult. You have to weather the ups and downs of your own humanity, play through increasingly talented teams, and master the unique elements of playoff hockey.

The Avalanche are soaking it all in right now, learning lessons in every game as they peel back the layers of their own identity to find just what they’re made of. With their season on the line and against a veteran-laden squad that has experience in every situation imaginable, Colorado found their way to Game 7.

While Colorado’s captain finished the job, the much-ballyhooed top line of the Avalanche struggled to generate offense at the same rate they were earlier in the series. Their struggles forced the depth players to pick up the slack. Those players, led by J.T. Compher, responded with authority.

“The depth guys, we’ve got to step up when we can,” Compher said. “That’s why this team is a great team altogether. Guys are stepping up all over the place and that’s why we’re in the spot we are.”

Compher helped get the scoring going in the second period when he and Tyson Jost broke out in an odd-man rush. Compher found Jost with a cross-ice pass and Jost one-timed it past Martin Jones to give Colorado the 1-0 lead. It was Jost’s second goal in two games since being elevated from the fourth line to the second line.

“Great finish by [Jost],” Compher said. “He put it right under the bar. It was huge to get us going. We’re much better off when we score the first goal and was big for us.”

The goals were a reward for Jost’s much-improved play this postseason and he moved up in the lineup with Matt Calvert out again and the Avs using only 11 forwards. With Mikko Rantanen clearly fighting off pain sustained in a huge collision with Brent Burns, the Avs needed someone to step up. Insert Compher and Jost.

“I’ve felt good all playoffs,” Jost said. “Ever since I got called back up from the Eagles I’ve been playing really good hockey. I’ve been playing the way I know how. Playoffs are the time where you elevate your game. That’s what good players do. I feel like I’ve been doing that all the way since the Calgary series to now. It’s nice to get bumped up and get more minutes but at the end of the day all I care about is winning.”

Winning wouldn’t have happened had Compher not continued what his coach called his best game of the playoffs so far.

“I tried to come out skating, come out physical,” Compher said. “I think that’s when I’m at my best and I was able to bury my opportunities, which I haven’t had the ability to do the first five games of the series. It felt good to force Game 7.”

Bury his opportunities he did. Compher combined with the other roommate in their house, Alexander Kerfoot, to score Colorado’s second goal late in the second period. Kerfoot got his body in front of a clearing attempt and cycled the puck around the boards to Carl Soderberg, who dug it out and found Compher high in the zone. From there, Kerfoot went straight to the net and took away the eyes of Jones, who never looked like he saw Compher’s shot as it got by him.

While the Sharks responded to Compher’s goal with one of their own with just under 10 seconds remaining in the second period, number 37 wasn’t quite finished. He gave the Avs their third lead of the game just four minutes into the third period when he took a centering pass from Derick Brassard and deked Jones for the backhand goal.

Colorado’s 3-2 lead held up until the 17:32 when the Sharks capitalized on the breaks you can’t control when Nikita Zadorov’s stick broke, leading to the Sharks gaining possession of the puck in the first place, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored his second of the night when he banked the puck off Zadorov’s skate and into the net to tie the game.

“We stuck with it,” Compher said of the Sharks finding a response. “Sometimes it’s a little discouraging when they answer right away but I thought we stuck with our game all night. Stayed behind their D, kept forcing turnovers, that’s why we’re successful. This group is really resilient, we showed it all year, even in the playoffs, and just another step here tonight.”

The Avs have improved at taking their lumps this year, finding a way to mitigate the damage instead of allowing one bad thing to turn into two or more. They did so again after the unfortunate game-tying goal as they put their head down and got back to work.

“Credit to them, they fought back and took advantage of some of their chances but I thought we were skating really well,” Jost said of Colorado responding to San Jose’s pressure. “We were all over them, we were on top of pucks, we were buzzing around. It’s fun when you play like that. We’ve done it throughout the whole year when we fought a lot of adversity and were really resilient and it’s nice to see that again.”

Compher agreed.

“You’ve got to try and manage the momentum best you can,” he said. “It’s very up and down. This group stays calm, knows what we need to do, and when we execute we’re hard to beat.”

Landeskog got the overtime winner just 2:32 into the extra frame, showing a killer instinct and getting to the series to the winner-take-all stage. Compher was the star of the night, however, and his three points were his first of the entire series.

“Honestly, before the game, I was all over him today at the house,” Jost said. “You can ask him about it. I was ripping him about everything little thing. He said, “Why are you all over me?” I said, ‘Because you’re going to pot a couple today’ and sure enough he stood me right up. I’m happy for him though. He played unbelievable today.”

With their season on the line, this Avalanche team has found ways to exorcize the demons of recent failures. Unable to win in Nashville, the Avs did that twice during the regular season. Same thing against Winnipeg. Winless against Calgary? Didn’t matter in their first-round series win in just five games. Now the final boss to topple to make it to the Western Conference Finals is taking down the Sharks in Game 7 on the road. Do you really want to bet against these guys?

“I mean, it’s Game 7,” Jost said. “It’s what you dream of as a kid. It’s going to be huge for our team and we’re excited. We have a lot of momentum right now and we want to keep that rolling. It was an awesome game but we’ve got to bag it and look forward to Game 7.”

This team is done looking at themselves the underdogs. It’s tied after six games in the second round of the playoffs. They clearly belong. There’s nothing flukey about the formula they’ve used to get here. The number one ingredient in this team’s recipe for success?

Belief.

“We knew it was win or go home,” Compher said. “A bunch of guys stepped up tonight. The plan was to force Game 7 and we did that.”

I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m done doubting them. Go make believers out of the rest of the world, Avalanche.