After what was a well-publicized and heavily discussed rocky start to the 24-25 campaign, the Colorado Avalanche are resembling the team everyone hoped they would be. The 0-4 start is fading quickly in the rearview mirror with the Avalanche rattling off three straight wins, including twice on their current three-game road trip and most recently last night, defeating Seattle 3-2.
It was a busy night in the National with every team in action across North America, and for Colorado, a semi-early matchup in the Pacific Northwest at Climate Pledge Arena. The game started 15 minutes late due to national TV coverage, and the Avs were slightly delayed to their start to the game even after the puck had dropped.
Seattle, under new bench boss Dan Bylsma, is an all gas no brakes team. With shaky goaltending and nominal offensive firepower, the strategy for the Kraken this season is shock and awe right from the hop. The Avalanche were caught flat-footed and in primary catchup mode for the better part of the first 15 minutes. Passes weren’t connecting, zone exits and entries were sloppy, and transition through neutral ice wasn’t efficient.
But Justus Annunen was grade A.
In his second start of the season, he was tested in the first 2 minutes with a barrage of offense but weathered the storm. He got some help from a post, and his defense stepped up with blocks and clears until the group collectively settled in. Colorado would be outshot 12-5 in the period but that’s not the number that ultimately mattered.
Hockey can change in an instant and one shot is all it takes sometimes. Enter Joel Kiviranta.
Colorado has needed some depth in their scoring and have started to get that with Ross Colton playing lights out, but at 18:32 Kiviranta joined the conversation. His second of the season from Sam Malinski ended the period with a good result, a 1-0 lead, despite sloppy play by the team.
The second was a completely different story. The absence of shots in the first brought a deluge of shots in the second. Sparked mainly by Cale Makar who shot the puck from everywhere, the Avalanche fired 17 at Philipp Grubauer while Annunen only faced 5.
A single glaring mistake net front led to a Jared McCann goal to tie the game at the midway mark. He found himself alone at the top of the crease and a gift of puck pushed to his stick was an easy tally to no fault of Annunen.
Colorado bounced back as they continued to push offensively and Kiviranta once again gave the Avalanche a lead with his second of the game from Makar and Ivan Ivan. The goal gave him the first multi-goal game of his career and he has now found the back of the net in two straight contests marking the first time in his career that he has scored in consecutive games.
Colorado picked up a late power play in the closing minutes of the second, an aspect of their game that has been rock solid from the start. Nathan MacKinnon would do MVP type things, scoring a beauty after a faked shot got Grubauer to bite resulting in a 3-1 lead as the period expired. Makar picked up another helper for his second point of the game extending his season-opening point/assist streak to seven games.
The third period was the most balanced of the three and all in it was solid for the Avalanche. A late penalty and an empty net set up a 6 on 4 that Ryker Evans capitalized on, but with only four seconds remaining in the game, the MacKinnon goal stood up as the game-winner.
The Avalanche next take on the NHL’s newest team, the Utah Hockey Club, on Sunday in Salt Lake City.
NOTES
-Justus Anunen stopped 25-of-27 shots to earn his second win of the season.
-Devon Toews skated in his 400th career game to become the fifth defenseman from the 2014 Draft class to reach that milestone.
-Colorado went 1-for-3 on the power play and are 9-for-24 (37.5%) this season and at the conclusion of the Avs’ game is good for the third-highest efficiency on the man advantage. The nine power-play tallies are tied with Ottawa for the league lead.
