Avalanche salvage point in overtime loss to Chicago

This season has been a tale of two Colorado Avalanche teams – the dominant, high-flying Avalanche at Pepsi Center, where they have been a very impressive 23-8-2. Then there’s the frustrating, out of sync Avalanche that had won just 12 of 32 road games entering their game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The game got off to the kind of start you’d expect from a team that has struggled so badly to win away from home with the Avalanche having nice jump early but not capitalizing on any of their chances. When you get early pressure on, especially against a weak goaltender like J.F. Berube, but can’t score it opens the door for mayhem and that’s exactly what happened when Colorado’s turned away chances became an early deficit.

Blackhawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson threw a puck across the mouth of the Avalanche goal as he was trying to hit Patrick Kane waiting on the doorstep but Patrik Nemeth’s skate intercepted the puck and it deflected past Semyon Varlamov to give Chicago the 1-0 lead just five minutes into the game.

The Blackhawks took the lead into the first intermission along with a 10-8 lead in shots on goal. The Avalanche flipped the ice in the second period in a big way when they outshot Chicago 18-7 but Berube stood tall.

Until Nathan MacKinnon did MacKinnon things, that is. Chicago gave the Avalanche the man advantage and with MacKinnon on the ice, it’s basically a two-man advantage and they capitalized, finally breaking down the Berube wall and he took a brilliant Tyson Barrie pass and whipped it high past Berube to tie the game late in the second period.

Despite trading power plays late in the third period, the game remained tied at one goal apiece and for the second consecutive game, the Avalanche ventured into the unsure depths of regular season overtime hockey, securing at least one point to move into a tie with the Los Angeles Kings for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The experience didn’t last long as the Blackhawks scored just nine seconds into the extra session when Kane hit Jonathan Toews with a cross-ice feed that got one-timed high past Varlamov. MacKinnon was late getting back and covering Toews and it cost the Avalanche the extra point tonight as the Blackhawks walked out with a 2-1 victory.