Avalanche need overtime to survive spirited Jets comeback

It’s that time of year where I’m not really sure what to make of games as the Avalanche are clearly in cruise control to a second straight division title and maybe even another President’s Trophy (Florida has decided to stop losing at all costs, though, so we’ll see how that race shapes up) and are taking the last-gasp shots from desperate teams trying to make the postseason.

Tonight’s 5-4 overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets was another of those, as the Avalanche entered the third period with a 3-2 lead, stretched it to 4-2 with a strong offensive effort early in the final frame until Nathan MacKinnon’s goal gave the Avalanche the two-goal lead and they backed off the gas pedal.

While they allowed Winnipeg to sink their teeth in possession-wise, their ability to limit the Jets to mostly low-quality opportunities was working just fine until Mark Scheifele donned the Master Chief armor suit and went coast-to-coast to score an electrifying goal to make it 4-3 with 3:35 to play.

The value of the two-goal lead is something funky can’t beat you. Not a weird bounce, not a questionable call, not a single thing in the universe can score two goals on one shot. When Scheifele made it 4-3, that door opened back up and something funky is what we got.

Instead of sealing the game with an empty-net goal, Nathan MacKinnon skated into the Jets zone with possession and Connor Hellebuyck safely parked on the Jets bench for the extra attacker in the final minute of the game and then MacKinnon fired the puck right into Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey, who pushed the puck back the other direction.

Upon entering the Avalanche zone, Mikko Rantanen impeded with Nikolaj Ehlers in a manner deemed illegal by means of cross-checking. Rantanen and the Avalanche vehemently disagreed with the call, but it was on Colorado to find a way to kill just 44 seconds of Winnipeg’s third power play of the night.

They were unsuccessful when Ehlers poked home his second goal of the night with just 16 seconds left in regulation.

Tie game and we were headed to overtime.

The seesaw battle had seen the Avs start out 1-0, the Jets take a 2-1 lead into first intermission, then Colorado strike back with two second-period goals to make it 3-2 heading into the third.

That same officiating crew that saw fit to give the Jets a chance to tie it at the end deemed an illegal impediment by Ehlers via slashing Nathan MacKinnon’s wrists gave Colorado a power play in overtime.

Despite using most of the power play time and getting a number of shots on goal, the Avs just couldn’t quite break through Hellebuyck, who had morphed into the wall we expect him to be after a relatively poor showing the rest of the night.

Then with mere seconds left until Ehlers re-emerged onto the playing surface, Cale Makar one-timed a cross-ice feed from Rantanen and scored his 25th goal of the season to secure the victory.

This was a battle of stars in the end.

The Jets got two goals from Scheifele and Ehlers and the Avalanche got goals from MacKinnon and Makar at the end to win it. The depth drove the scoring early for the Avalanche as Nicolas Aube-Kubel got lucky with a puck that went in off Brenden Dillon and then Andre Burakovsky and Erik Johnson beat Hellebuyck cleanly with shots from distance.

Look, this wasn’t a masterpiece. The Avs didn’t play all that well. They were pretty terrible in the first period and there were stretches in the second period where each team was just daring the other to make the bigger mistake. This game is a great example that sometimes not very good hockey can produce a pretty fun hockey game because it was certainly entertaining, but if you’re the Avalanche and trying to tighten the screws in the stretch run before what you hope is a deep postseason run, this isn’t a great showing.

It’s not a disaster. It just sort of exists. One of those nights, as we say, except the Avalanche won it.

Tomorrow night against an amped-up Edmonton Oilers team sitting at home thrilled the Avs had to expend the energy they did to get past the Jets in this game? That should feel different. It will be another test of Colorado’s mettle.

Tomorrow is all about character. Tonight was just about taking care of business. It wasn’t the way they’d have liked, but Colorado got it done.

TAKEAWAYS

• Devon Toews blocked a shot and was very slow to get up after the game-tying goal by Ehlers. He labored around for a while and then never saw the ice in overtime because of the first shift bleeding into the power play opportunity. He remained on the bench the rest of the game and then skated off fine during the celebration, but we’ll see if that turns into anything else. We likely won’t know until gametime tomorrow if Toews is in the lineup or not because teams rarely participate in morning skate on the second half of back-to-backs, especially when they play in overtime. Jared Bednar said this morning that Sam Girard was an option to return tomorrow and Toews getting hurt would certainly track. The desired top four of Toews, Makar, Girard, and Bowen Byram has basically played no meaningful stretch of games together as they have traded injuries to prevent this group from ever getting on the ice together. It’s like the universe trying its hand at checks and balances. Save it for Vegas, will ya?
• Speaking of Byram, he had the big mistake in the first period that led to Winnipeg’s second goal as an errant outlet pass deflected off J.T. Compher’s stick and went right to Scheifele, who found Ehlers alone in front because Colorado was breaking out and everyone was gone. Other than that obvious big whoops, I liked Byram’s competitiveness especially. I don’t think he played a great game, but I really like that he doesn’t back down from the moment and even when he makes a big mistake, he keeps playing his game. There’s just not much normal about this 20-year-old.
• First time at a Jets game. Cool atmosphere, gigantic press box (too big, to be honest) and I like the vibe of the place because it’s literally built into the downtown space. If only it wasn’t surrounded by a bunch of random businesses and more actual things to do, but this definitely isn’t the worst arena experience I’ve had. Not at all.
• The Jets opened overtime with a three-forward alignment. Scheifele and Ehlers were great throughout and add one of the league’s best goal scorers in Kyle Connor and it was an interesting call by Dave Lowry to go for it like that. As soon as they lost possession, we saw the limitations of that decision as they had to try to defend Colorado’s counter-attack and that’s when Ehlers was called for the penalty that ultimately doomed Winnipeg.