Goals, Goals, and More Goals

The Colorado Avalanche pulled out a narrow and late win in DC over the Washington Capitals, putting us two up on our current four-game road trip. Now, it's off to the Sunshine State for games against both teams, and first off, it's the Florida Panthers--the reigning, defending, undisputed Stanley Cup Champions. Now, it's no secret that I don't really think too much of the Panthers' Cup win. After all, they beat a Lightning team who we wrecked two years prior, they beat Boston because everyone does, they needed favorable calls to beat the Rangers, and they beat Edmonton--the ultimate "fool ya" team in the NHL. So yeah, the road wasn't as perilous, but that's irrelevant. The relevant thing is, they won it.

Also, the Cup win is the latest chapter in a streak of dominance for the Sunshine State, which is threatening to top the province of Alberta's string from the 80s; Florida teams have been in every Cup Final in this current decade, and have won three of them. However, if there's any team who wrote the book on beating Florida teams when it counts, it's the Colorado Avalanche.

Alexandar Georgiev was in net against Sergei Bobrovsky, and the latter was up one within the first minute. Carter Verhaeghe, the only player to win Cups with both Florida teams, scored just 52 seconds into the game. So we were starting from behind from minute one. There was some heavy pressing from both teams, and the Avs did tie it. It was believed to be Cal Makar who tied it, but the shot went off Jonathan Drouin and in. So Drouin gets his first in the middle of the frame, but six minutes later, Aleksandar Barkov gives Florida their lead back. It was 2-1 Panthers after the first 20 minutes.

We had the champs right where we wanted them.

2nd period starts, and Drouin ties it up at 34 seconds. Makar gets his second assist, and Devon Toews had one as well. We were not done. Three and a half minutes later, it's Logan O'Connor giving the Avs our first lead of the game. The assists: Oliver Kyington and Ivan Ivan. We were still not done. Samuel Girard scores from Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichushkin, and many minutes later, Rantanen gets one of his own from Girard and Toews. It's 5-2 for the Avalanche, and in all this, I was thinking: "We haven't seen a penalty at all." However, my hopes for a rare penalty-free game were dashed at the near end of the 2nd. The first power play of the game went to Florida, and it was Sam Reinhart who netted his 16th of the season on that advantage.

Even so, the Avs were up 5-3 after 40 minutes, and we would be in for a very crazy third period. At 3:02, the Panthers received another power play, and it became just under a minute of 5-on-3. The Panthers scored, but it was quickly waived off for goalie interference. Paul Maurice challenged the call, but lost it. As a result, that was Florida's first penalty of the game, and it became 4-on-3 for the Panthers. That was killed off, and after both Avs exited the box, the Avs received our first and only power play--of 11 seconds. All of that was knocked off, but later on, Matthew Tkachuk and Miles Wood got rough with each other at the midpoint. The only thing that didn't change in this mess was the score, but late in the third, Oliver Kyington picked up his first goal with the Avs to make it 6-3. Bobrovsky was pulled for the extra attacker, and that allowed Nichushkin to get the extra point, and that was followed by Anton Lundell getting a meaningless goal.

The Colorado Avalanche put up a seven-burger on the defending champs in Sunrise! What a victory! Jonathan Drouin with a pair of goals, Val Nichushkin gets his first of the year, Oliver Kyington gets his first Avs points, and Mikko Rantanen with a goal and three helpers. Here's the crazy thing. We were down 2-1 after the first 20 minutes. Here's a crazier thing. We won this game in dominant fashion despite only one point from Nathan MacKinnon, and a grand total of 11 seconds of power play time! If the Avs weren't back before, we sure as hell are back now!

Winners of seven of our last nine games, the Avalanche's road trip concludes on Monday, when we head to Amalie Arena to face the Tampa Bay Lightning. After that, we return home to face off against the Vegas Golden Knights on the last game before American Thanksgiving.

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