DENVER — For the second time in a week, the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, this time a 4-2 victory in front of a heavily divided Pepsi Center crowd.
Before the game, there was a sense of impending doom about having to face the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions without, perhaps, the Avs’ best defenseman, Erik Johnson, who is currently serving a two-game suspension for boarding Tampa Bay Lightning forward Vladislav Namestnikov.
But the Avs looked like they were out to prove that they aren’t a one-man show on defense. Colorado’s top guys were dominant at even strength against the Penguins’ star-studded top six.
Sidney Crosby was held without a shot and was an analytical nightmare thanks in large part to his matchup against Nikita Zadorov. But the big Russian wasn’t the only Avs player to show out tonight.
The game started with the two teams trading chances back and forth in the kind of game the Penguins feast on: Fast, up and down hockey. Goaltender Semyon Varlamov was forced to make a handful of outstanding saves from in tight but he held steady. The back and forth style of play continued for the remainder of the first as the teams traded goals and would eventually head to their respective locker rooms even at one goal apiece.
That was when the Avalanche took over and never looked back. Colorado came out absolutely flying in the middle frame, forcing Pittsburgh to take four penalties, almost all of which were in an attempt to break up legitimate scoring chances. Tyson Barrie scored his second of the night, this one a power-play goal, when he put a puck on net through traffic, something everyone has been waiting to see him do ever since he came back from injury.
JT Compher’s remade line with Colin Wilson and Sven Andrighetto seemed like a line that was put together as an afterthought on paper, but they were spectacular tonight. Arguably Colorado’s best line, they combined for 12 shots on net and were pushing the play all night.
“Yeah, I mean, I thought our line did a really good job getting chances tonight.” Compher said after the game, “[Andrigetto] and [Wilson] were great, I think we all had somewhere around three or four shots, we were getting some good scoring chances.”
Compher hit the post, had a goal disallowed and, was part of a 2-on-0 break, but couldn’t seem to find the back net, which has been a bit of a theme for him lately.
With just under two minutes to go in the second period, Compher knocked a rebound, created by Andrighetto, out of the air with his best Charlie Blackmon impression, finally giving him a much-deserved goal.
“I think it’s nice to get one, especially in a tight game like that against a good team,” Compher told BSN Denver. “Yeah, I’ve had my chances, but the good thing is that I’m getting the chances, and now it’s just concentrating on taking advantage of them.”
Compher’s goal, his fifth of the season, would prove to be the game-winner as the Penguins would get one back at the start of the third period, but couldn’t get any closer as Mikko Rantanen added an empty-netter just before the one-minute warning in the final period.
This win marks the second time the Avs have had to hold on to a third-period lead against Penguins, which speaks to the growth and potential of an extremely young Avalanche team.
“Those are the games you’ve gotta win going down the stretch and especially on this homestand,” Compher explained. “It’s gonna be close, you can’t go score six every night like we do some nights, but I thought we did a really good job playing defensively and grinding them down.”
After an impressive stretch for the Avs in the last week and a half that saw them play some of the top team’s in the league, and not only hold their own but come out with a winning record. The Avs now sit just four points out of a playoff spot.
The Avs head out on the road before Christmas where they’ll get a chance to prove themselves once again, playing the Pacific Division leaders in the Los Angeles Kings, and a team that looks eerily like the ghost of 2016’s Christmas past in the Arizona Coyotes.
