Half a loaf is better than no loaf; Avs escape St. Louis with one big point

Of course, it was Ryan O’Reilly who made the winning difference in the Avalanche’s 3-2 shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues Monday night. Did any longtime Avs fan, who have seen a parade of ex-players torture them pretty much from Day 1 since the team moved to Denver in 1995, expect anything different?

O’Reilly scored the only goal in the shootout, while Nathan MacKinnon, Gabe Landeskog and…Sven Andrighetto?…all got feeble shot attempts on Jordan Binnington. So, while the Blues got the extra point in this one, this night finished much better overall than it seemed it would.

The Avs fought back from a 2-0 third-period deficit to tie the game with 47 seconds left in regulation, on an Alexander Kerfoot goal. That got them a point in this one, and that point might well make the difference in the end for the Avs in making the playoffs. Or, maybe it won’t.

As it stands, the Avs have three games remaining in the regular season, with a two-point lead on Arizona for the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Each team has three games remaining. The Avs play Edmonton (Tuesday night), Winnipeg and San Jose. The Coyotes play the L.A. Kings, Vegas and Winnipeg.

May the best team advance.

The Avs deserve tons of credit for getting this point. They looked dead as a doornail by the 16-second mark of the third, when Vladimir Tarasenko, as he always does, scored a goal to make it 2-0 for the Blues. The Avs were just atrocious in the first period, getting outshot 14-2 and outscored 1-0 (one Blues goal was called back).

But, after that, the Avs played competent road hockey, outshooting the Blues 10-3 in the second. Still, things looked hopeless with the clock ticking under 14 minutes in the third. Binnington, this year’s surprise NHL goalie who came out of nowhere, seemingly had the Avs in check.

But then came the two tips; First, Gabe Landeskog, on a tip of a Patrik Nemeth shot. Then, with under a minute left, a great tip by Kerfoot of Landeskog’s lead pass past Binnington. Tie game, point gained.

The overtime and shootout? Of course, it went against the Avs. But that’s how it almost always goes against the Avs this year.

Here’s the good news: No more five-minute overtimes or shootouts in the playoffs.

The Avs got one step closer to them Monday night.

OTHER TAKEAWAYS

– A week or so ago, I would have said Semyon Varlamov would play in a game like on Tuesday against Edmonton. But, at this point, I think Jared Bednar will just ride his hot goalie to the end, for better or worse. I think everyone will worry too much about rust with Varly at this point, to play him in such a big game. Philipp Grubauer has shown lately he can handle this kind of workload. It’s only about a 90-minute flight from St. Louis to Denver, so I expect the Avs will get in at a reasonable hour tonight and have all day to sleep and get ready for the Oilers. I think Gruby gets the start, but we’ll see.

– Why Bednar used Andrighetto in the third shot of the shootout, I have no idea. That was his first shootout attempt with the Avs EVER. He hadn’t attempted a shootout shot since the 2015-16 season, with Montreal. Here’s the thing: Andrighetto seemed to actually have Binnington beat on the backhand. All he had to do was lift the puck over Binnington’s outstretched pad and it would have been a goal. But Andrighetto slid the puck right into the pad.

– If he has to play hurt a little, I think the Avs have to ask that of Mikko Rantanen soon. The Avs have scraped by without him, but they really need his offensive talent in these last few huge games. It’s time to go for broke, not save up for a rainy day. The rainy day is here.