Balanced attack paces Avalanche in matinee victory over Sabres

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Afternoon games are just weird.

This year’s Avalanche team has largely bucked convention and just won games anyway regardless of the history of a challenging situation they’ve found themselves in. Today’s 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres is much of the same, though it certainly didn’t as easily as their respective place in the standings might suggest.

Colorado got goals from all four lines (kind of) and survived a chaotic first period where neither team seemed interested in playing defense.

Tage Thompson of the Sabres opened the scoring on Buffalo’s first and only shot the first ten minutes of the first period but the 1-0 lead lasted just a minute as Nathan MacKinnon immediately tied it.

Things settled down for a few minutes before three goals were scored in a three-minute stretch later in the first period. J.T. Compher scored, followed by Thompson’s second of the game, which was answered immediately by Nazem Kadri.

In the end, Colorado took a 3-2 lead into the second period. The Avs came into today’s game with the second-best goal differential in the second period behind only the Carolina Hurricanes.

They couldn’t build off that history, however, as Thompson got the period’s only goal as he snagged the first hat trick of NHL career and put him at 19 goals on the season. He has been by far Buffalo’s bright spot of the season as once thought to be a disappointment of a first-round pick has really taken flight this year.

Darcy Kuemper learned the hard way just what a great shot Thompson has as two of the three goals scored were lasers that you have way bigger problems with the defense in front of Kuemper than Kuemper himself.

Despite not having his best game of the year, Kuemper did just enough today and Colorado’s played a safe game in the third period waiting for their chance to attack. They got it on a questionable non-call as Rasmus Dahlin appeared to have been hit with a high stick by Jack Johnson in a race for the puck that ended in a hard collision behind Kuemper’s net, but Colorado capitalized the other direction with an Alex Newhook one-timer to give the Avs a 4-3 lead.

Colorado immediately followed the goal by actually getting called for a penalty, their first of the game. The Avs killed off Buffalo’s best chance to tie the game and mostly cruised to the finish line from there.

Mikko Rantanen added an empty-net goal after Jeff Skinner whiffed on a puck at the blueline and Rantanen got possession and was by himself skating to the empty Sabres cage with the puck. He tapped it in, got himself a two-point night and so did the Avs, who moved to a league-high 76 points on the season.

It wasn’t pretty. Colorado played porous defense through the first two periods as they bled more scoring chances and high-danger chances than they should against a team of Buffalo’s caliber. The Avs still had the advantage, but they left plenty on the ice for head coach Jared Bednar to focus on during tomorrow’s video session as the Avs prepare for the Boston Bruins on Monday.

Today’s game, summed up, was not good, but just good enough.

TAKEAWAYS

• The balance of getting a goal from each line with assists from the defense is how every team would love to win every night. It was cool to see, though, and great for the bottom six to really add to the mix as Compher and Newhook got goals.
• I continue to love the way Newhook battles out there. A lot of rookies struggle with the speed of the game and the consistency with which they are required to fight for every inch of ice, but Newhook eschews concerns over his size by being a very willing and capable battler. He’s not overly physical but he makes life hard because he makes opponents earn what they get against him. That isn’t super common for rookies, but especially rookies who are more known for their skill and flash than the gritty aspects of the game. He scored his 11th goal of the year and has an outside shot at getting to 20 on the year. That would be a fun rookie story.
• I hated how the game was officiated today and the third period started to get out of control with players from each team starting to take riskier runs because the officials wouldn’t call anything. Hell, Val Nichushkin had his stick taken out of his hands by a Sabres player, he threw his hands in the air, and the Sabres player skated away with the stick and it somehow still wasn’t a penalty. I laughed, but also that’s how players get hurt. If they’re there to manage the games, they should…try…managing the…games?
• I will take an 11 AM start time over an 8:30 PM start time ten times out of time. Every. Single. Time. Banish late games. How do y’all feel?