Avalanche finished grueling road-heavy schedule with a flourish

13 of 17 games on the road. That’s what the Colorado Avalanche just finished tonight in Anaheim. They have spent 28 of the last 34 days on the road. They went on three separate road trips of at least three games.

Following tonight’s 4-2 win over the Ducks, the Avs finished that stretch of 17 games with 11 wins. Their record in the three multi-game road trips was 3-1, 4-1, and 2-1. Across 82 games, that’s a 106-point pace.

Instead of focusing solely on tonight’s win over the Ducks, tonight I’m going to focus a bit on the last two games (since I didn’t write much about the win over the San Jose Sharks).

Let’s talk about the last few days and the big picture a bit.

Road success puts Avalanche back in the Central Division mix

Given all of the problems the Avs have had this season from insane injury luck to league-worst goaltending, for the Avs to be in this position is a respectable accomplishment.

They actually passed the Dallas Stars in the standings tonight, moving to 40 points on the season against Dallas’s 38. Now, the Avs have 35 games played against just 32 for the Stars, so the Stars are still in better position here, but it is notable that Colorado is 7-3 in their last 10 versus 5-5 for the Stars. They’ve gained four points of ground despite everything.

The Stars have also had a home-heavy schedule while the Avs are on 19 road games versus 16 home games (it will be 17 after the Avs play in Denver on Sunday).

Again, there are games in hand considerations, but the Avs moved to just four points behind the Minnesota Wild and seven back of the Winnipeg Jets. Even being that close to the Jets after their 15-1 start is pretty incredible. We thought the Jets would come back to earth and they wasted no time doing it as they’ve gone 8-9-1 since that record-setting start.

Colorado leads all of these teams mentioned in games played, but they’ve put themselves back into the fight instead of having to squint to see a path back to possibly hosting Round 1 of the postseason.

Now that the Avs have stopped bleeding goals to the tune of the worst save percentage in the league by a wide margin, they’ve become much harder to beat. I’ve written about this a bit recently, but the other teams in the Central Division have been hoping the Avs couldn’t get two good things to happen at once.

Now, they have a Hart Trophy candidate (again) in Nathan MacKinnon, a Norris Trophy candidate (again) in Cale Makar, and have gotten excellent goaltending from both of their new goaltenders, Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood.

Those special teams are suddenly clicking, too

Before last night’s game in San Jose, the conversation around the penalty kill was mostly that it had been improving but wasn’t anything special.

The conversation around the power play, however, was the annual calls for the firing of Ray Bennett, Colorado’s coach who handles that unit. Every season, the power play goes through a lull and the conversation around his job security comes up.

Every year, the unit responds because it simply has too much elite talent for it to be so bad. The power play scored twice last night and added one against the Ducks tonight.

Special teams were crucial in Colorado snatching two points from Anaheim tonight. Predictably, the wear and tear on the Avs has been showing and with them on another back-to-back while the Ducks were sitting at home hanging out.

Colorado’s 5v5 play wasn’t very good tonight so it had to come from somewhere. It started with the penalty kill.

A broken play had Logan O’Connor find Parker Kelly for a shorthanded breakaway. Kelly caught Ducks goaltender John Gibson leaning and beat him for Colorado’s first goal of the game which happened to tie the game at 1-1.

Makar’s power-play goal in the third period made it 3-1 and gave the Avs breathing room they would not relinquish. Ultimately, Colorado finished 1/4 on the power play but scored a shorthanded goal and went a perfect 5/5 killing penalties.

In terms of process, the numbers jump off the ice, too.

In 9:34 of 5v4 time, the Ducks had 15 shot attempts, six shots on goal, six scoring chances, and two high-danger chances. Those aren’t very good numbers, especially given that they allowed a shorthanded goal the other way.

Conversely, the Avs had 6:41 of 5v4 time and they created 14 shot attempts, six shots on goal, eight scoring chances, and three high-danger chances. That’s much, much better.

Scott Wedgewood rules?

The other factor playing in Colorado’s resurgent penalty kill is, obviously, that the goaltending has gotten much, much better. Even Alexandar Georgiev’s final game as an Av was excellent when he allowed only one goal in a win at Detroit.

Blackwood was obviously added to be Colorado’s new workhorse starter, but Wedgewood is the exact kind of backup the Avalanche have lacked since Pavel Francouz’s career ended prematurely due to injury.

Sometimes, relationships in hockey just don’t work out. By the end, that was true of Georgiev’s tenure in Colorado but it was also true of Wedgewood’s time in Nashville. He had been great for much of his time with the Dallas Stars, but when he hit the open market, he was in line to make a little more money than Dallas wanted to pay for a backup netminder.

The Nashville Predators came calling as they looked to decrease the workload from Juuse Saros. Wedgewood was an unheralded part of Nashville’s spending splurge in free agency, but like the other players, it was a nightmare for him with the Preds.

In five appearances in Nashville, Wedgewood finished with a 3.69 goals against average and .878 save percentage. Since arriving in Colorado, he has made six appearances and posted a 1.93 GAA and .932 save percentage.

Tonight, he was the best player for the Avs with two goals allowed on 32 shots. Both goals were deflections, one a brilliant (and intentional) tip by Leo Carlsson in front and the other a classic lucky bounce as a puck headed to the front of the net hit Alex Killorn’s knee and redirected into the net.

It briefly gave the Ducks some life near the end of the game as the goal brought the score to 3-2, but they didn’t push much harder and a MacKinnon empty-net goal ended any potential drama.

What really stymied the drama was Wedgewood, however, as he was brilliant all game. He stopped everything easy the Ducks threw at him but just as importantly, he was excellent on Anaheim’s best scoring chances. He stopped eight of 10 high-danger shots on goal. He was solid with the rebounds and in control all game.

If anything, Wedgewood deserved a better fate tonight. As it is, the Avs will happily take another impressive goaltending performance as the team was tired and lost the possession battle again.