The Avalanche toppled the Boston Bruins on Saturday evening in a 4-1 win that was Boston’s first regulation home loss of the season. The game-winning goal came in the second period when Ian Cole scored his first of the season.

As always here in Avalanche Film Room, we wanted to breakdown exactly how the Cole goal came to be. It also happened to be a good example of why every little thing can matter in the organized chaos of hockey.

It starts with defense

Boston struggled mightily through the first 50 minutes of the game to generate offense. This first clip is a great example of why. The Bruins dumped the puck in against Colorado’s third pairing and fourth line, the safest combination they could get.

Cole gets to the puck first and knows he has Mark Barberio on his backhand. He hits him with the pass and from here, Barberio has options. You can see him take a peek and he sees the Avs have numbers. T.J. Tynan is available up the wall and Tyson Jost provides additional puck support.

As Boston entered the zone, Vlad Kamenev peeled off and covered the Bruins player who headed across the ice. The result is Barberio having a clean look to Tynan, who corrals the puck and heads up the ice. This was as clean a denial and exit as it gets.

“Get pucks deep”

Tynan heads through the neutral zone with a bevy of bodies with him but chooses to continue pushing the puck ahead himself. It’s clear here they are going for a change. The safest way to do that is to do as they say in every hockey player interview ever and get the puck deep into the zone.

As the defense closes in on Tynan, he chips it deep and lets Jost and Kamenev apply pressure as he heads off for a change.

Cole, who had stepped into the rush, drops back to his spot on the left point to cover a puck reversal and chip up the boards.

Tyson Jost gets to work

It looks like Jost loses the initial puck battle and it pushes the puck around the boards. Kamenev makes a subtle but important decision here.

Knowing Tynan has gone for a change, Kamenev chooses to go behind the net and apply one last bit of pressure to the puck in hopes of buying an extra second. As soon as Boston reacts to Kamenev’s presence, they reverse the puck again.

Had Kamenev gone in front of the net done a cursory fly by on the forecheck, Boston might not have reversed the puck. This is a good example of smart hockey versus lazy hockey.

This ends up being a crucial play in the sequence as up until now it looked like Boston was going to get a clean zone exit much the same way Colorado had done just moments earlier.

Jost had other plans, however, and showcased what has become one of the very real strengths in his game. He sees the reversal and immediately attacks the puck, carried by Danton Heinen. He swats the puck away and then gets into a battle with Matt Grzelcyk.

There is some contact and Grzelcyk goes down but Jost keeps after the puck, eventually getting to it first and moving it to a teammate.

Donskoi dangles

The teammate Jost moved the puck to was Joonas Donskoi, who had just hopped on the ice for Tynan. Because Tynan got the puck deep and was first off, his replacement was able to hustle and get into position to provide support for Jost after Jost won his one versus two battle on the forecheck.

Donskoi gets the puck and immediately displays one of his best offensive strengths, his ability to shield defenders from the puck. He bodies up Jake DeBrusk as he probes the defense for an opening, turning up ice towards the Boston net.

This runs him right into Heinen. Donskoi fends off Heinen here and just outworks him to maintain the puck. Donskoi is now on the wall and has had a chance to fully survey the ice with all changes done for both sides. Donskoi puts the puck around DeBrusk and flat on to the stick of Barberio.

Charlie Coyle slides over to block Barberio’s shooting lane so Barberio simply moves the puck to Cole, who slid into the empty space created when Coyle left.

Instead of just firing a shot as soon as possible, Cole steps into the empty ice and waits for someone to come and challenge him. When Grzelcyk finally steps out, Cole is able to successfully use him as a screen for his shot.

The shot beats Jaroslav Halak on the glove side and gave the Avs their game-winning goal.

Another angle of the action

Grzelcyk steps up to challenge Cole’s shot and Coyle collapses from up high but Cole’s shot was well-timed. The reverse angle gives you a better idea of the obstruction posed by Grzelcyk and, honestly, just a great angle of the goal itself. Quality production, Altitude!

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