Climbing the Ladder

What did I say when we were 0-4? I said not to worry. I said this was a long season. Look what's happened. Four straight wins. The goals are coming in from all sorts of players, and Justus Annunen has been on a roll in net. The Avs' last win was in Utah; a dominant 5-1 victory that saw, among other things, Ivan Ivan's first NHL goal. And after two days off, the Avs are back at home to face off against the Ottawa Senators, and as we recall, the last time the Senators hit Ball Arena, it was one of Nathan MacKinnon's two four-goal games of the season.

Annunen was in net once again against Anton Forsberg, and the opening frame was pretty tight and close, with no scoring for the most part. Nathan MacKinnon put one in, but it was removed due to the most bullshit goalie interference call I've ever seen. Forsberg was not touched. Not one bit. So the game remained scoreless, but something told me we would get that goal back somehow. Finally, with about eight seconds left in the first period, Nikolai Kovalenko scores his first NHL goal, and the assists came from Casey Mittelstadt and Nathan MacKinnon. 1-0 was the score after a first period that saw the game's only penalties committed, one from each team.

Second period was quiet, close calls from both teams in this frame, then in the final minute--again, it's the Avs striking. Josh Manson gets his first of the season, and the assists came from Mittelstadt and Samuel Girard. 2-0 was the score after two, and the third period was where the insanity took place. Ottawa got on the board in the middle of the frame, and of course, it's Brady Tkachuk. Barely over two minutes later, Nick Cousins (who assisted on the Tkachuk goal) tied it up, and barely over two minutes after that, Logan O'Connor gets his first. Mittelstadt and Girard wth the helpers, so that's the second for the latter and the third for the former. 92 seconds later, Ross Colton nets his eighth of the season. It's 4-2 Avs at this point, and then Claude Giroux cuts Ottawa's deficit in half. Forsberg's pulled, and MacKinnon puts it in the empty net to make it 5-3. Goalie's pulled again, and it's Giroux again with 10 seconds left to make it 5-4. That score holds up in the end.

The Avalanche's winning streak is now at five games. We are now over .500 for the first time this season. So many names contributed. Mittelstadt had another three point game, MacKinnon had yet another game winning goal, and here's the thing. There's a missing name in that list of point collectors for the Avs in this game: Cale Makar. For the first time this season, Makar did not have a point. However, it did not matter one bit. The Avs are back, folks. These are the Avs that we know and love, the same team that the rest of the league should definitely be afraid of.

This is the first game of the Avs' first back-to-back set this season. The Avs will be back at it on Monday against the Chicago Blackhawks, a team we always get the best of--especially at home. After that, the Avs will end the month of October hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning in the last game of a three-game homestand.

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