Nathan MacKinnon provides another superstar moment in Colorado's comeback win

“Goaltending is voodoo.”

In the controlled chaos that is hockey, there is one guy whose job it is to make sense of it all, sift through the madness and decipher the future before it happens and react accordingly.

Every game is different, every period has its own personality, and the puck is shaped in such a way that it bounces in entirely unpredictable ways.

It’s what makes goaltending so difficult to repeat at a high level.

And what the NHL is seeing from Columbus rookie Elvis Merzlikins is incredible. He had two consecutive shutouts walking into tonight’s game against the Avalanche, including a relatively breezy 16-save effort just last night against the Detroit Red Wings.

Against the high-scoring Avalanche, something had to give. In a goofy game filled with penalties and posts, the universe was the real winner as Columbus entered the third period with a 1-0 lead thanks to a Seth Jones goal.

Jones had gotten hurt in the first period when he got his skate tangled up in the net and provided a classic hockey tough guy story when he came back and scored on the fourth Columbus power play despite a bum leg.

From there, the story shifted to Merzlikins and his shutout streak. Colorado had hit five posts (two on one shot) and watched Merzlikins get away with a fabulous Hasek-style routine before finally solving the riddle of the rookie.

That shutout streak ended at 174:40 after Nazem Kadri beat Merzlikins with a wrister. Columbus was trying to break the puck out but Nikita Zadorov stepped up and separated Nathan Gerbe’s soul from his body and the puck landed on Kadri’s stick, who went wide on Jones to create the shooting lane that tied the game.

To that point, it was just Colorado’s second shot of the period. The goal kickstarted Colorado, who started skating a little more like the Avalanche team we’re accustomed to seeing and laying the pressure on Columbus, who looked shellshocked by the goal.

And then it happened.

When you have a superstar or two on your team, they produce the occasional superstar moment that reminds you just what a special talent they really are.

In what looked like another routine zone entry, Colorado’s top line (lethargic to that point in the game), found a little space as Gabe Landeskog drove the center of the ice and forced the defense to collapse on him just enough to find Nathan MacKinnon wide open.

And the shot from MacKinnon was downright special. Somewhere, Alex Ovechkin was wondering who had stolen his signature shot.

It was MacKinnon.

The star’s 31st goal of the season put the Avalanche ahead 2-1 with just 4:34 remaining.

Nationwide Arena sat in stunned silence and the Blue Jackets never recovered as Philipp Grubauer shut it down the rest of the way to give Colorado their third straight win.

The Avs wrap up their five-game road trip tomorrow evening in Minnesota against a rested Wild team.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• I want to start with Grubauer. It’s easy to come down on goalies when they’re struggling and ignore them when they’re doing their job. But Grubauer has allowed just three goals over the last three games (one in each!) and was instrumental in not letting Columbus build on their lead today. The goal he did give up is certainly one he believed he should have given his demonstrative (for him, anyway) reaction. His play in the third period was enormous, though. The team in front of him didn’t have much energy and wasn’t generating anything offensively, instead getting beaten up in their own zone a little too much. Grubauer held, though, and kept them from getting the two-goal lead, which we saw make such a huge difference in Philadelphia just a week ago. This was right about the time Grubauer stole the job from Semyon Varlamov last year and caught fire. If that happens again, hoo boy.
• Colorado’s top line continues to be just good enough but it has been far too long since we’ve seen them actually dominate a game. MacKinnon has three points (1g, 2a) in the four games on this road trip but hasn’t been pouring it on like he was before the NHL decided the Avs needed an excessively long break. He needs to find the zone again and get back to dominating. It would, obviously, help quite a bit of his two regular linemates could flash that high-end talent we’ve spent the last two years seeing from them. They too frequently look like three players on three different pages right now and that they continue to chip in points along the way is more a testament to their talent than how they’re actually playing. They have a much higher ceiling to get to.
• That thought should be what keeps St. Louis and Dallas nervous. Colorado’s top players aren’t firing on all cylinders and the team has lost just three times in regulation since 2020 began. Those two teams are currently playing each other (tied in the third period, of course) but Colorado’s win temporarily moves them within four points of the Blues and three ahead of the Stars. By the end of the night, they will have three games in hand on STL and two on DAL. For those unconvinced, they are now nine points from dropping out of a playoff spot entirely.
• Cale Makar snagged an assist on the MacKinnon goal, pushing him to 41 points and one ahead of Quinn Hughes in the oft-discussed Calder race.  He had some good flashes again tonight.
• Colorado won its first game of the season when entering the third period trailing. The Avalanche is now 1-11-1 in that situation. They had been the only club in the league without a win in that spot. They also won a one-goal game, the deficit they have won by the least this year. It was a playoff atmosphere between two very good teams and all the Avalanche gave was a single PPG. It wasn’t pretty and the Avs were definitely outplayed at times but the best teams find ways to steal a few of those every year.
• I loved the hit from Zadorov on Gerbe. I’m not sure he would’ve stepped up like that had he still been wearing the bubble as it forced a certain conservative mindset from him but now that he’s back to normal, he can embrace the idea of returning to his previous Godzilla form. He took a penalty earlier in the game that was a result poor play but that hit helped turn the game on its ear and is a reminder of his value as few other Avs look to bring the pain like Big Z.