Avalanche Game 6 Recap: Red Hot

The Colorado Avalanche's weird schedule continued with the beginning of a three-game East Coast swing that will end the month of October. First stop: Long Island. The Avs faced off against the New York Islanders, the very team that Devon Toews used to play for before the Avs acquired him following the unorthodox end of the 2019-2020 season. The Avs were coming off a big win against the Carolina Hurricanes, a game that saw a lot of goals. The Islanders haven't been known for offense, so it seemed like it would be a quiet-paced game.

Nope.

The scoring started early; Ryan Johansen on the power play at 5:19 into the first period. This was his third goal of the season, and all of them were on the power play. The Avs completely dominated in shots, but despite this, the Islanders tied it up on only their second shot on goal; Cal Clutterbuck at 10:03. Colorado didn't have to wait too long to take the lead back, as Cale Makar put one in just over two minutes later.

The 2-1 score held up for the rest of the period, but in the second, the Islanders got on it. Kyle Palmieri on the power play on the near three minute mark, and Simon Holmstrom three minutes later. Isles led 3-2 and managed to kill off a Colorado power play. It looked like the Islanders would head to the locker room up one, but in the final minute, Bowen Byram finally netted his first goal of the season to tie it up. It gets better. 13 seconds later, Nathan MacKinnon put his own shot in! So just like that, the Avs ended the 2nd period up by one.

The third period saw more of the same chaos; first off, Anders Lee tied it up for the Isles, but just over three minutes later, Mikko Rantanen scored his fifth goal of the season, and picked up his third point of the game. Avs led 5-4, and managed to kill off a double minor (with the help of an Isles penalty during that stretch). The Isles pulled Ilya Sorokin (who had quite an un-Sorokin-like performance), but that resulted in a pair of empty netters from the Avs: Johansen with his second of the game, and a weird one from Ross Colton on a clear. Avs won 7-4. WOW!

The Colorado Avalanche are 6-0-0 to start the season. I still can't believe it. I always hope for us to win the Cup; I never expect us to have dominant starts, because in a sport like hockey, it's very difficult. Yet we are currently in a season where two teams are 6-0-0 and one team is 7-0-0. Amazing! This win was just spectacular. Four points (G/3 A) from Rantanen, three points (G/2 A) from Makar, Johansen with two goals of his own, getting red hot after a slow start, Byram finally got his first goal of the season--maybe he'll cut down on the penalties. Alexandar Georgiev has been tested in his last two games, but that was expected. He had a sub-1.00 GAA entering the games against Carolina and the Islanders. No goalie keeps that up. When Georgiev found himself in a peck of trouble, his teammates helped him. That's how you win games, an absolute team effort.

The Avs' East Coast swing will continue on Thursday, as Nathan MacKinnon will pay his old buddy Sidney Crosby a visit in Pittsburgh. Always good and interesting when the Avs and Penguins get together.

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