The Colorado Avalanche struggled their way to a fourth win in five games as they snuck out of Edmonton with a 5-4 win over the Oilers. There were shades of the January meltdown when the Oilers walked into Denver on the second night of a back-to-back and erased a 3-0 deficit with a third-period goal to win 4-3.

We saw the Avs build leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 4-2 but still walked into the third period tied 4-4. They started the period on a power play, did nothing with it, then were gifted an extended 5v3 chance that they also did nothing with. When the Oilers got a PP of their own later, they did…well, nothing with it. The explosive first two periods that saw two teams trading goals had dissipated into a low-event, careful game with two points on the line.

A calculated third period eventually played out well for Colorado, whose energy was clearly low after they played in Calgary last night and the Oilers expended a ton of energy in erasing multiple deficits earlier in the game.

When it came down to it, the Avalanche made the last big play when Nathan MacKinnon registered his fourth point of the night with an assist to Martin Necas, who snagged the game-winning goal.

How did we get there? Let’s talk about it.

Nathan MacKinnon delivered the knockout punch

This was a star-studded affair. On the ice tonight were four players with a Hart Trophy (Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Corey Perry) and two Conn Smythe winners (McDavid, Cale Makar). You had five of the top 15 players in the NHL in scoring (McDavid, Draisaitl, MacKinnon, Makar, Martin Necas).

It was an All-Star Game that actually counted. Draisaitl and MacKinnon are once again frontrunners for this year’s Hart Trophy while Makar is always involved in the Norris Trophy conversation.

When MacKinnon opened the scoring on the power play at 9:48 of the first period, Draisaitl responded with a power-play goal of his own at 10:39. When Makar (assisted by MacKinnon) gave the Avs a 2-1 lead at 11:46, Perry joined the fun at 12:22 to even the score again. MacKinnon found Artturi Lehkonen at 18:08 to restore Colorado’s lead at 3-2. Then came the first intermission. Whew!

Makar nabbed a shorthanded goal in the second period, only to be followed on that same power play by a Perry goal and things were at 4-3. Near the end of the second period, Draisaitl outworked everyone in front of Colorado’s net and poked a puck over Mackenzie Blackwood and put the score at 4-4 heading to the third period.

These were the stars showing out. Well, mostly, because McDavid didn’t do a damn thing, but everyone else did!

A tight-checking third period saw the Avs finally break through for the game-winning goal when, you guessed it, Nathan MacKinnon found Martin Necas in front of the net. Necas buried his second game-winning goal as an Av and MacKinnon’s fourth point of the game was enough to finally put the resilient Oilers away.

The final totals? Makar finished with two goals and an assist, MacKinnon one goal and three assists, and Necas the game-winning goal. Draisaitl and Perry scored both of Edmonton’s goals while McDavid was held off the scoresheet. He did have a -3, though, so I’m sure the notoriously level-headed Edmonton media won’t bring that up at all over the next two weeks.

It was MacKinnon who started and finished this prize fight.

Blackwood struggled in double duty

Goalies playing in back-to-back games is something Jared Bednar has been comfortable asking of them going back years. It eschews conventional wisdom but if Bednar likes what he sees in the first game, he’ll go back to it in the second game.

That seemed inevitable heading into tonight’s game when the Avs were without preferred backup goalie Scott Wedgewood, who did not make the trip due to injury. Instead of letting Trent Miner have his own Adam Werner moment in Edmonton (if you know, you know), Bednar rolled with Blackwood.

Blackwood wasn’t tested with much last night in Calgary, so it wasn’t an indefensible decision. That’s especially true as Blackwood won’t be participating in the Four Nations Face-Off, so he’ll have plenty of time to rest after going hard this past week with five starts in eight days.

The fatigue sure seemed to take its toll on Blackwood, who had arguably his worst performance for the Avs to date. The first Draisaitl goal is fine. No issues there, but every goal after that you can have a conversation about him needing to make a save somewhere in the sequence.

I’m not going to bury a guy who has a .922 save percentage in 22 Avalanche appearances, but this was the night where the Avs needed to outscore their goaltender’s struggles. It’s been a while since that was the case and the skaters absolutely owe him a few of these wins given the way he has played for them.

It wasn’t Blackwood’s best night, but when this game turned to a rock fight, Blackwood stood tall and stayed engaged. He stayed in the net despite the struggles as Edmonton pulled Stuart Skinner after the first period. Gritty is the name for it for everyone on Colorado’s side, but especially for Blackwood. He put the first two periods behind him and aced the test in the third to secure the win.

Avs respond to Jared Bednar’s challenge

So much of this season has been defined by inconsistency and the team’s tendency to sleepwalk through games. When they’re winning, they don’t slam the door shut. When they’re losing, they don’t show a lot of fight in clawing back to find a win. They were grittier when they were injured and there was more desperation by replacement players to stay in the league.

It’s gotten a little cozy with the Avs this year, so when head coach Jared Bednar challenged his team before their home game against the St. Louis Blues last week, it was going to telling how they responded. With five games remaining before the league takes a two-week break for the Four Nations Face-Off, he told his team to treat them like playoff games.

He wanted to see attention to detail, good habits, intensity, and some goals. The final scores from those five games?

• 5-0 vs. St. Louis
• 2-0 vs. Philadelphia
• 0-3 @ Vancouver
• 4-2 @ Calgary
• 5-4 @ Edmonton

For those keeping score at home, that’s a 4-1 finish to that stretch of games. The final game was my personal favorite. Not only was the game tonight as fun as regular-season games get, but it was high-end talent jousting for points that both clubs need. The Avs were also in a disadvantaged position, which has consistently drawn out the best in them over the last five years.

We saw that again. I was worried that after watching their 4-2 lead turn into a 4-4 game in the third period, the Avs would fall apart. It just never happened. They struggled to get their offense going, but their defense remained solid and tight through the third period. That effort culminated in the game ending with about 20 seconds of the puck being pinned against the boards as Jack Drury won an awful lot of fans in that locker room tonight with his late-game work.

This was just a downright gritty finish to the game. This road trip was on the verge of disaster after the first period in Calgary, but they stormed back and won their personal Battle of Alberta.

From a DNVR scheduling note, I will have Studs & Duds in the morning like normal and two more pieces coming after that, but I am on vacation beginning Monday morning so when I go quiet, that’s all that is. When I’m back home, you can look for a deluge of trade deadline content from us, both written and video.