Avalanche losing streak ends as offense heats up icy Winnipeg

That’s how you end a losing streak! Following weeks of futility and seemingly inventing new ways to lose on any given night, the Avalanche went into a place that’s been nothing short of a house of horros and slayed a whole grip of demons all at once.

Sure, it’s just one game but Colorado’s 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets felt like a fifty pound weight lifted off the shoulders of an entire organization. The onus is obviously on Colorado to keep it going and not make this just a one off but the way they played tonight as a team is exactly what’s been missing lately.

Blocking shots, hustling hard on backchecks, and mistakes by the skaters being erased by the goaltending of Semyon Varlamov. Is this October again? This was the second straight time the Avalanche have outplayed the Jets in Winnipeg but the goaltending stood tall and the skaters finished enough of the chances created that they actually found their way to two points this time around.

This is exactly the kind of resilient performance the Avalanche produced regularly last season when they had their backs up against the wall. They’ve become such a fragile group this year that it’s been almost shocking given how they put up these types of performances last year.

Colorado followed a simple formula to get back on the winning track: Score first, dominate play, score again, don’t fold like the French when things go bad, get a couple of big saves, keep scoring, keep getting saves, don’t make many mistakes, keep getting saves. Noticing a theme here? Getting saves = winning games.

As the kids say, yahtzee.

Takeaways from the game

• There’s plenty to love on Colorado’s first two goals from the pinch from Erik Johnson to the sweet backhand pass from Nathan MacKinnon to Gabe Landeskog. I wrote in my piece this morning Colorado’s best players had to get back to being just that and their horses made big plays that led to the first two goals. Badda bing badda boom.
• Dominic Toninato’s offensive futility last year was a primary driving factor in him not getting quite as much trust right away this year. He got called up to replace Sheldon Dries and give a heavier presence down the middle and it immediately paid off with his hard-nosed drive to the net and rebound goal. Have to love a guy getting his first.
• Semyon Varlamov has come under heavy fire from all angles with his terrible overall play the last couple of months but there have been signs of real progress. The first goal against tonight was extremely questionable, even with the weird tip from Barrie’s stick factored in. But Varlamov bounced back in a very meaningful way, making a big stop on Patrik Laine and keeping the Jets from tying the game when the Avalanche were struggling to cleanly exit their zone.
• Have to feel for Sam Girard a little. He goes all these games without taking a single penalty and then just flubs a routine outlet flip and it ends up a delay of game. If that ends up only being the penalty he takes all year, it’s going to be a bittersweet memory.
• Bittersweet because Matt Nieto made a nice play to spring J.T. Compher for a breakaway and Compher did a great job protecting the puck from a backchecking Mark Scheifele and he found the back of the net. It was Compher’s third SHG of the season and first not against Arizona. Just a huge, huge effort from the Avalanche PK.
• The much-maligned Avalanche PK found it’s stride in this one. Amazing how much better a PK unit looks when sticks are active in disrupting passing lanes and your goaltender is locked into the game and feeling good about himself. They always say your goalie has to be your best penalty killer and Varlamov certainly was tonight.
• The fourth line flexed its muscles in a major way tonight. This is exactly how a fourth line can have a big impact on games and really underscores what Colorado lost when Vladislav Kamenev went down with his injury and that line turned back into wallflowers. We’ve been waiting for this kind of game from Greer for a while now and he finally came through with the thunder. Toninato had extra jump and Sven Andrighetto broke loose from the shackles of mediocrity to put the icing on a sweet, sweet cake.
• The Avalanche sure looked like the better team to me tonight until they got up 3-1. On a night of positives, I will say their tendency to lay back and let the other team come at them in waves can be discouraging. Tonight, though, they made life hell for the Jets despite allowing a sea of shot attempts. When you’re blocking that many shots and not allowing much in the way of quality, the other team gets frustrated and we saw exactly that with the Jets showing their teeth a little after the game had been decided. That third period is exactly how winning teams gear down the pace of play and secure wins. Exactly that.
• I know I’ve used this space before as my own personal Matt Calvert Appreciation Thread but hopefully y’all don’t mind me doing it again. He’s not a guy you want to rely on for major production or anything but his heart and effort on a nightly basis are what you want from a guy in his role and he plays it very, very well.