Always Bet on Blackwood

For me, this was a very awesome Saturday night. I enjoyed seeing Saturday Night's Main Event for the first time in 16 years, and as the show reached the second half, the Colorado Avalanche began play against the Nashville Predators. This was the third meeting of the season against the Preds; the first meeting in Nashville went the Preds' way, but the second meeting was the overtime win at home for the Avs. This was also the second game of a brief two-game homestand before the Avs would head back on the road for three games in the Pacific Time Zone.

This was pretty special for the Avs, as Mackenzie Blackwood would make his Avalanche debut in this matchup. The Avs traded for Blackwood a few days ago, sending Alexandar Georgiev to the San Jose Sharks. Speaking of goalies we traded, many fans were expecting Justus Annunen to start for the Predators, but instead, it was the main Juice himself: Juuse Saros. The first period was only quiet on Nashville's end. Blackwood was already showing why we traded for him. When the first period ended, the Preds outshot us 13-9. Yet after 20 minutes, it was scoreless.

In the second period, the first power play went to the Avs, and it was at that point that I saw a graphic that said that the Preds had the top penalty kill in the league. That left me wondering: "Their PK is that good, so why the hell do they suck this season?!" The power play was killed off, but the Avs continued to press. We would not hit paydirt until Ross Colton put it in and made it 1-0. That revved us up. Preds had a power play, and we almost had a shorthanded goal; Devon Toews' (who assisted on Colton's goal along with Casey Mittelstadt) shot hit the crossbar. PP got killed off, and later in the period, Nathan MacKinnon made it 2-0 off a pass from Mikko Rantanen.

2-0 was the score after 40 minutes, and in the third, we see MacKinnon pass it to Artturi Lehkonen, who delivered what I assumed was just a shot to get on net, but it somehow goes in! An amazing beauty made it 3-0, and with the way things were going, it looked like we had this. It also looked like Blackwood's first start would result in a shutout, but the Preds got to him, and of course, it was Steven Stamkos--from Jonathan Marchessault and Filip Forsberg. The shutout bid ended 13:03 into the third, and just over two minutes later, it was Luke Evangelista striking. So now we had a game here. Avs had to hold on. With barely over two minutes left, Saros is pulled for the extra attacker, but that allows MacKinnon to score his second of the game to make it 4-2. Saros gets pulled again, but Lehkonen gets his second of the game as well, and that settles that.

What a victory for the Avalanche tonight! Mackenzie Blackwood absolutely showed out; 38 saves in his first start with Colorado! That's why we traded for him! Nathan MacKinnon, Artturi Lehkonen, and Mikko Rantanen each with three point nights, and for MacKinnon, he became the first player to reach 50 points this season. Overall, MacKinnon has 949 total points, moving him within 51 points of the 1000 point mark.

With this victory, the Avalanche have won five of seven, and now, it's off to the West Coast. The Avalanche will be in Vancouver on Monday, and then it's off to Anaheim on Thursday, and off to San Jose (possibly against Georgiev) on Friday.

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