Despite Game 2 win, the Avalanche knows it needs to take its game to another level

It takes a village, right?

While there are plenty of playoff heroics from the superstars who end up in the Hall of Fame, no team works their way through the gauntlet that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs without contributions from players further down in the lineup.

Today was a perfect example of that as the Avalanche took a 2-0 series lead against the Arizona Coyotes with a 3-2 win in Game 2 on the back of Nathan MacKinnon leading the charge but getting help from some of the non-stars behind him in the lineup.

Slotting in for Joonas Donskoi, Tyson Jost got his first action against the Coyotes after being a healthy scratch for Game 1 and made the most of his time, finishing with three shots on goal, including a perfect deflection of a Cale Makar shot that temporarily put Colorado ahead 2-1 in the second period.

Jost contributing immediately upon returning to the lineup rewards a player the coaching staff certainly wasn’t in a hurry to remove from the action but didn’t hesitate once an opportunity presented itself.

“I love his work ethic,” head coach Jared Bednar said of Jost following the game. “He’s been really good at times through the course of the season. We found some chemistry with a few lines and there’s some other players stepping up at key times for us. What he’s done is he’s added to his toolbox and found different ways to contribute for us. We’re using him on the penalty kill. He’s out of the lineup, he comes into tonight. He’s killing penalties, he’s hard on pucks in the offensive zone, he goes to the net and holds the net front of a shot and gets a deflection goal. Just finding a way to be a contributor and helping our team win. We’re getting that from a lot of players but we’re going to need our depth. He’s a guy that’s easy to put in the lineup or keep in the lineup and he possibly could’ve been in today even without Donskoi being out. I love what he’s doing on off days with his work ethic. He’s showing he wants to be in there and do whatever he can to help our team win so great character.”

Jost got the second goal but the glory went to Andre Burakovsky, who scored the game-winning goal at 17:07 of the third period, putting Colorado ahead 3-2 and securing the two-game lead in the best-of-seven series.

Burakovsky’s goal bailed out a mediocre performance from the Avalanche as a team as they took a spirited counterattack from Arizona and just barely survived. The Coyotes outshot Colorado 32-28 after a dominant Game 1 performance by the Avs saw them outshoot Arizona 40-14.

The push back from the Coyotes was certainly no surprise as everyone expected them to come out playing at a much higher level in Game 2. They answered the bell and pushed this Avalanche team to the brink of overtime before a lucky puck bounce helped create Burakovsky’s game-winner.

“We knew they were going to come really hard,” Bednar said. “You read the comments from their coach and their players what they felt like they did or didn’t do or needed to do coming into this game. They played hard, they played real well. I thought at times we did real well in certain areas of our game but we needed to ramp up our competitiveness, certainly in our defending. I would say that our intentions were right and we found a way to stick with it. Even that might not be the right term because I never really felt that we played as well as we could through any large portion of the game. Part of that was execution, part of that was what Arizona did. We know we have to be better than that if we want to win tomorrow. It’s that simple.”

Throughout the game, Colorado’s clear-cut best player on this day was Nathan MacKinnon, whose zero shots on goal in Game 1 seemed the only positive for Arizona to take from the lopsided affair.

MacKinnon made sure that was a short-lived series narrative as he ripped behind the Coyotes defense and beat Darcy Kuemper just minutes into the first period to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead and serve notice that this was going to be a different game.

It was indeed, but not the way Colorado was hoping. Arizona played a strong game and made life miserable on Colorado’s puck carriers, especially on breakouts as they relentlessly attacked on the forecheck and created many turnovers from the Avs’ defense throughout the contest.

The Avs survived, however, and certainly MacKinnon flying all over the ice while getting double-shifted after Vladislav Namestnikov left early in the game with an injury and did not return played a significant role. It was arguably MacKinnon’s best performance since the Avs arrived at the bubble and he scored “just” the one goal, giving him six in the team’s five official postseason games, tied with Nazem Kadri for the most on the team.

“It’s exceptional,” Bednar said of MacKinnon’s competitiveness. “I think what you saw in the third period, really the whole game…I said this last game about Kadri but I thought Nate was our best forward tonight. Just engaged physically, and his execution was pretty good. He was dangerous a lot and he defended and did a lot of the right things on the defensive side of the puck. Turned out to be a real good player for us tonight. When we lost Namestnikov, but tonight was a pretty easy decision who to give extra ice time to. We always do it with Nate and his line, especially when games are close, but tonight was pretty easy decision there to double him up and keep the other lines the same, especially going into a back-to-back. I didn’t want to overtax everyone but Nate is certainly a guy that can handle the extra minutes.”

That back-to-back, which starts at 1 P.M. Mountain Time tomorrow, will be Colorado’s chance to put Arizona’s season in jeopardy and maybe the last chance the Coyotes have to gain any foothold in the series. MacKinnon, for his part, said he would be “buzzing” tomorrow.

If that means he’s even better tomorrow than he was today, we could be looking at a 3-0 series lead for the Avalanche in 24 hours. Even if MacKinnon’s “buzzing” doesn’t guarantee the Avs a win, he certainly has plenty of help on his team to help get the Avs to the brink of Round 2.

After all, it takes a village.

TAKEAWAYS

• To win a playoff game against a desperate opponent on their A-game when you’re stuck seemingly in neutral most of the contest…boy, is that ever big. It’s so hard to win playoff games to begin with but the Avs got it done when they just didn’t play a very good game and the Coyotes playing at a level they haven’t really played all postseason.
• Losing like that means one of two responses from Arizona: That was the best they had to give and it still wasn’t enough and they go away quietly in this series OR they feel like they can play with the Avs now and their confidence only grows and this becomes the real series we’re going to see from here on out.
• The Avs just didn’t play very well today. Their breakout was sloppy, the puck management left a lot to be desired, and their general structure defensively was pretty lacking. I thought they were pretty good offensively and the quality of chances created was certainly there. A little more finish and it never gets as close as this one was but that’s just how hockey goes sometimes.
• I love that even when this team has an off-day, they battle. Over a decade of frustratingly poor hockey, we got accustomed to Avs teams folding up shop when things didn’t go their way, especially offensively, and these guys just keep plugging away. Guys having tough days are still getting out there and working their way through their struggles. The guys playing well aren’t yapping at the other guys. It’s a very team-first attitude. Everything about the make up of this club says they have the goods to go deep in this postseason.
• The Avs have only lost one game since entering the bubble and it was in overtime. This is without Nathan MacKinnon truly dominating a game yet. This is without Cale Makar looking like the superstar we saw for so much of the regular season. This is without Sam Girard being that special two-way defender. This is without Mikko Rantanen being the Big Moose we know him to be. If those guys come around in this series, I really don’t know Arizona is going to be competitive.
• There was plenty of second-guessing going on when Philipp Grubauer was the Game 1 starter for Colorado. We expected that to be the case but given the quality of Pavel Francouz’s play all season and in his bubble appearances, it was at least a conversation. Grubauer has quieted that conversation at least a little bit as he’s been nothing short of excellent through two games. He was tested significantly more in Game 2 and came through as the team in front of him struggled to find their footing. I expect we’ll see Francouz in tomorrow’s back-to-back but that’s really just another advantage for Colorado. Arizona is forced to ride Darcy Kuemper and it’s fair to wonder if fatigue starts to set in at some point, especially if the Avs bring a strong offensive game tomorrow.
• Joonas Donskoi did not play and Vladislav Namestnikov left the game early with an injury. Their status is “day-to-day” but they are under the “unfit to play” designation for now.