Avalanche Game 27 Recap: Trouble at Ball Arena

The Colorado Avalanche's home loss to the Winnipeg Jets left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. To me, the game was lost when the Jets scored that goal with 2.2 seconds left in the first period, because that took away whatever momentum the Avs had--hell, Winnipeg actually scored to start the second period. Even so, these are the Avalanche, and this team usually bounces back from losses like this. Plus, this was the third game of the Avs' five-game homestand, and home cooking is always good for teams.

The latest visitors to Ball Arena were the Philadelphia Flyers, and I often think back and say that this was almost the Cup Final back in 2000. Another fun fact: the Flyers were the Avs' opponents on the day before the famous Matt Duchene trade in 2017. In fact, Duchene's last Avs goal was the OT winner in that game. Also, Cale Makar's coast-to-coast goal came against Philly last season. So yeah, interesting moments when these two teams play each other.

Ivan Prosvetov was in net for the Avs against Carter Hart, and that was an interesting move. The Avs were not playing a set of back-to-back games, so the only other possibility was that Alexandar Georgiev was being given some time to rest. Both teams started the game firing shots left and right, then the Avs had a power play that went right in all categories, except the scoreboard. Four shots on the PP. Yet it would be Philadelphia who struck first, and it was Travis Konecny late in the frame. Moments later, Nathan MacKinnon (my Avs Twitter Psychic pick) tied it up to increase his point streak to 11 games, and it was 1-1 after 20 minutes.

At that point, I figured it would be different from the game against Winnipeg. After all, the Avs answered back in response to a late first period goal. The second period remained back and forth, and the Avs had the shots lead. However, we would not have the lead where it counts, and in the heard of the second period, Owen Tippett put it in to make it 2-1 for Philly. He would get an assist two minutes later on a goal from Travis Sanheim. It was 3-1 for the Flyers. Barely over a minute later, Josh Mansion made it a one-goal game again, and just like on Thursday, the Avalanche were down 3-2 entering the third period, with the final frame seeing the Avs on the possible verge of tying this game.

Then the penalty shot happened. Travis Konecny was awarded a penalty shot, and it was successful. His second goal of the game made it 4-2, and Joel Farabee made it 5-2 just 46 seconds later. Oh boy.

OK, this is troubling. I was excited for this homestand because the Avs would finally get more home games in, plus I felt it would make up for the bad road trip. Unfortunately, the result, so far, is a losing skid for the Avs. After a huge winning tear that saw us win seven of eight, the Avalanche have lost five of our last six. Yet we're still in first place in the Central because a) it's a 1-3-2 skid, with two of the losses being post-regulation, and b) the Dallas Stars just can't seem to win games lately. That won't last forever, though. Now the Avs need to take the last two games of the homestand to make sure it's a successful one

The Avalanche's homestand continues on Monday with a meeting with the Calgary Flames, and it will conclude on Wednesday with a game against the Buffalo Sabres on TNT

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