Avalanche Game 36 Recap: Bouncing Back
The Colorado Avalanche look to rebound from their devastating collapse by facing off against the St. Louis Blues
The Avalanche were coming off quite an embarrassing overtime loss; leading 4-0 but giving up five straight against the Arizona Coyotes. Ironically, the one point that Colorado received was enough for the good guys to take the Central Division lead, but still, this was a terrible loss. In addition, after being road warriors to start the season and winning those games outside of Ball Arena, the Avs were on a six-game road losing streak, with three of the losses coming in extra time.
Game #36 (five away from the halfway mark) saw the Avs in St. Louis; the third meeting of the season. The first two games were in Ball Arena, with the Avs winning the first game, 4-1, with Ivan Prosvetov in net, but the second meeting was the 8-2 drubbing that saw the Blues on the winning end. For this go-around, it was Alexandar Georgiev in net against Jordan Binnington, and the shots were scarce during the first few mintues. The Avs had no shots on goal for a good bit, and then the first shot went in. Josh Manson scored, or so we thought. Blues challenged for Goaltender Interference, and for some reason, it was overturned. I guess simply breathing on Binnington is GI, because there was certainly no contact.
Game remained scoreless until Ryan Johansen broke the scoreless tie at 15:11. After killing two penalties (and being stunned that the Blues PP is still last in the league), the Avs had a power play. Unfortunately, the Blues decided that since they can't score on their own power plays, they'll score on ours. Nathan MacKinnon turns over the puck, Robert Thomas breaks away, and puts it in. Shorthanded goal. The rest of the PP is killed off, and after 20 minutes, it's 1-1. The score held up after 40, and that was because Mikko Rantanen missed a wide open net in the second period. Yikes. Third period was eventful. Mackenzie MacEachern threw an object at the puck, which awarded a penalty shot for Cale Makar. The shot's no good, and afterwards, the Blues received yet another power play.
That's killed off, and as time winded down, I sensed overtime looming. As I was thinking, "This is the night that we actually score in the OT period," a shot for the Avs goes in! It was originally believed that Miles Wood scored it, but it was actually Devon Toews with the goal to make it 2-1. The go-ahead goal was scored at 17:06, and over a minute later, Binnington was pulled for the extra attacker. The Blues actually controlled the puck for a good bit, but couldn't tie it up. Avs couldn't get an empty-netter, but it wasn't needed.
The Avs won, 2-1, to snap the six-game road losing streak. That's not the only streak that came to an end, though. For the first time in 20 games, Nathan MacKinnon didn't record a point. In the 19 game streak, MacKinnon had 36 points (13 G/23 A), including a four goal and an assist game against Ottawa. That's almost two points per game in the stretch, and he stands just two points shy of the overall league lead. Overall, this was a gritty effort that saw scoring from other factors, as well as the usual near-shutdown goaltending from Alexandar Georgiev. With the team just a few games away from the halfway point, the Avalanche sit atop the Central Division, and it looks like we'll stay there for the rest of the way.
The Avalanche will end 2023 on home ice against the San Jose Sharks on New Year's Eve. After that, the Avs will remain at home to kick off 2024, facing off against the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
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Clyde E. Dawkins
I'm a big sports fan, especially hockey, and I've been a fan of villainesses since I was eight! My favorite shows are The Simpsons and Family Guy, etc.
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You've delivered yet another fantabulous sports recap. :)