Closer Than it Should Have Been

It's always somewhat special and interesting when the Colorado Avalanche face the Montréal Canadiens. Yes, it's a West vs East matchup, but that's only since 1995. Remember, the Avalanche, once upon a time, were the Quebec Nordiques, and the Nords and Habs were heated rivals for 16 years, mostly in that classic Adams Division. At that time, the Habs were quite established, while the Nords were this team from Quebec's capital city and from another league; a transplant from the WHA. Despite the huge class disparity, the rivalry was heated and close, the NHL's first provincial rivalry--predating the Battle of Alberta by a year. The teams met five times in the playoffs, though Montréal won three of the five. Yeah, pretty close.

So yeah, the Nords moved to Denver, and the first thing we did was basically poach from our old division foes. We traded for this Patrick Roy guy and ended up winning the Stanley Cup in our first year in Denver, and won again five years later. Three years ago, the Avs took Artturi Lehkonen from the Habs, and that got us another Cup. It's almost like the Habs basically owed us for all the times they dominated that provincial rivalry.

So on this day, the Avs visited Montréal as part of the final leg of the Eastern Canada road trip, which saw us lose in Toronto but win big in Ottawa. Prior to our game, the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild both won, so we knew what we had to do. Mackenzie Blackwood was in net against Sam Montembeault, and the Avs dominated the first period. Despite this, it looked like we'd get a scoreless opening period; Montembeault was holding down the fort, while Blackwood was having an easy frame. However, Sam Malinski opened the scoring at 7:35, with the assists coming from Joel Kiviranta and Ross Colton. Two and a half minutes later, Ryan Lindgren made it 2-0, with Brock Nelson and the aforementioned Artturi Lehkonen assisting. So the Avs led 2-0 after 20, with both goals coming from blueliners.

The first period only had one penalty and a successful kill from the Avs. The second was wild! Keaton Middleton and Arber Xhekaj (pronounced "Jack-Eye") threw hands, and less than two minutes later, Les Habitants didn't know how to count to cinq (five). Too many men penalty committed by the Habs resulted in an Avalanche PP, and Martin Necas made it 3-0, with the assists coming from Jonathan Drouin and Valeri Nichushkin. Just seconds later however, Juraj Slafkovsky put the Habs on the board to make it 3-1, and after that, the flurry of penalties came out. Three called all at once at 13:22 resulted in a Habs power play that turned into just over a minute of 5-on-3, but it was all killed off.

Avs led 3-1 after 40 minutes, and it became 4-1 thanks to Brock Nelson, his third goal in two games. The third period saw no penalties, but quite a few goals. At 9:24, Joshua Roy scored from Alex Newhook (who was once part of our 2022 Cup run) and Patrik Laine. So I figured that it would just make the game look a bit better, but 30 seconds later, it was Slafkovsky again. Alexandre Carrier assisted, and all of a sudden, it was a one goal game. I was looking for the Avs to strike back, and while we had some good chances, nothing went in. However, at 13:32, Christian Dvorak receives the pass from Brendan Gallagher and puts it in. Un, Deux, Trois--three unanswered goals, and this game was tied, with a lot left in regulation. Blackwood had to pull some magic to keep the game tied; the Avs had a few good chances in the final seconds of regulation, but we would get overtime.

In the overtime, the Avs controlled the puck for the most part, and Necas was on the receiving end of a hit that should have been penalized. However, we would get a power play later in overtime, and oh man. The shooting was there. The shots were point blank. We fired on all cylinders. The only thing we didn't do... was score. I couldn't believe that power play got killed off. Hell, we should have scored about three times in that span. Even so, we survived overtime and made it to the shootout, which saw Charlie Coyle score in the first frame. Blackwood had a chance to win the game with a stop on Patrik Laine, but Laine put it in. After Nathan MacKinnon was stopped, the fourth frame saw Christian Dvorak slip up in the end, and afterwards, Brock Nelson won it!

The great thing about interconference games is that it doesn't really matter if they end up becoming three point games. This game shouldn't have been one, but even so, it's West vs East, so it was fine. The great thing: at least the Avs walked away with the two points, and now we are six wins away from reaching the playoffs for the eighth straight season. This win came without points from MacKinnon and Makar, and as for Brock Nelson, he has three goals in two games, and scored the shootout winner. We are still on an impressive winning stretch, and remain three points behind Dallas in the race for home ice in that potential series, and we ended up taking two of three in that Eastern Canada swing.

So after two days off, the Avs will end the month of March with four straight home games. The homestand starts on Tuesday against the Red Wings, and it continues on Thursday against the Kings and next Saturday against the Blues, before concluding on March 31 against the Flames. We all remember the last time the Avs went on a homestand: six games, 12 points, got 'em all. Now? We have eight points to get.

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