Poor decisions doom Avalanche in overtime loss to Wild

The Avs entered today’s early-evening tilt in Minnesota in sort of an odd spot in their season. The teams on their schedule are predominantly playoff teams fighting for seeding or for a playoff spot at all. It isn’t a soft spot against weaker competition by any means.

With that in mind, the Avs are missing several players who will be important contributors to their lineup come the start of the postseason. All of them appear to be on track to returning to the lineup (I’m including Bowen Byram just because he’s now traveling with the team, but we all understand the situation there) when their situations are resolved.

That’s all good and well, but in the meantime, the Avs still have that challenging slate of games to work their way through. Coming into the game with a nine-point lead over Calgary for top spot in the west and a 15-point lead over Minnesota in the Central Division, you can argue the results of these games aren’t incredibly important.

I hear that, but today’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild was still an opportunity to show the Wild who the boss at the top really is and not give them any confidence in the matchup. These two teams might be on track for a postseason matchup (most likely in Round 2) and sending messages is kind of the NHL’s thing this time of year.

Instead, Colorado erased a 1-0 lead in the third period, built a 2-1 advantage, and watched it disappear on the back of self-inflicted wounds.

Before we get into that, though, I feel it’s important to acknowledge the Avs actually played quite well in this game. With the Wild playing yesterday at home against Columbus, the compromised Avalanche lineup, at least in my eyes, evened the rest advantage out a bit.

Colorado outplayed Minnesota through two periods, carrying a 28-14 shot advantage into the third period. They missed some great scoring chances, but it was mostly Wild goaltender Cam Talbot playing a great game to keep the Avs off the scoreboard.

The second period was an especially strong period for the Avs as they had a 23-10 advantage in shot attempts at 5v5. They played good hockey.

Then they paid the price for a completely made-up holding call on J.T. Compher as Kirill Kaprizov scored on a nice backdoor play just as the Wild power play was expiring to put Minnesota ahead 1-0 going into the third period. Replays showed Joel Eriksson Ek slashing the glove off Devon Toews’ hand moments before the goal, a common theme throughout the game.

That theme being the officials letting go legitimate infractions and calling really ticky-tacky stuff, if not entirely fabricated, a la the Compher penalty. The first three calls of the game were, if we’re being incredibly generous, questionable and the physicality allowed throughout the game set the tone for a game-changing sequence in the final minute.

That sequence, with the game tied at 2-2, came when Erik Johnson crushed Tyson Jost into the boards and was called for cross-checking with 26 seconds remaining in regulation.

The Avs got into overtime, securing one point and moving them back to ten points ahead of the Flames for the west lead. OT didn’t last long, however, as a very questionable lineup of players (Compher, Jack Johnson, Toews to start with Nazem Kadri and Cale Makar available is absolutely a weird call) lasted 15 whole seconds before the Wild got an easy entry into Colorado’s zone and scored immediately on a Kevin Fiala one-timer.

Darcy Kuemper gave up three goals and didn’t really stand much of a chance on any of them as major breakdowns in front of him created easy chances for the Wild and they converted.

If you’re looking to break down this game into the simplest terms possible, that’s it. The Wild didn’t generate a ton of quality chances but converted. Colorado didn’t, including a Logan O’Connor short-handed breakaway in the third period when the Avs were leading 2-1 that would have potentially iced the game.

Each team’s stars had major hands in deciding the game as Kaprizov had a two-point night and Kadri did the same. It was a great battle back and forth. Both teams look primed for the postseason and this is just me thinking out loud here, but I’d love to see what a full-strength Avs team looks like against the Wild in a seven-game series.

This game was a physical contest with a ton of hitting and questionable rough stuff all over the place. While the Wild probably aren’t erasing the 14 points that sit between them and the Avs as they have just 18 games to play (Colorado has 16), the next time they see each other will be Game 82. We’ll see if that one means more than this one.

The Avs now head to Calgary, where it’s low-key an important game. A regulation loss cuts Colorado’s lead to eight points and might make a race of the west’s top seed (still a stretch, but maybe). An Avalanche regulation win would pop it back up to 12 and keep the Avs in cruise control for home-ice advantage.