The Century Mark

The Colorado Avalanche's three game swing ended with the team winning two of the three games, and it was during that stretch that the Avs locked in a playoff spot. Now it was time to play the last two home games in the regular season, and the first of those two games was a meeting with the Vegas Golden Knights. Scott Wedgewood was in net against Akira Schmid, and it only took nearly three minutes for the Knights to get a free power play. Honestly, that's longer than usual.

Avs killed it off, and received a power play later on! Good news, right? Not quite. On our PP, Knights broke away two-on-one, and William Karlsson put it in. Karlsson, who hadn't scored since the Avs had Mikko Rantanen, put Vegas up 1-0 on a shorthanded goal. Yet another shortie we gave up. Rest of the PP was killed off, Keegan Kolesar and Chris Wagner came to blows, and then the Avs went back on the PP. No shots, killed off, but hey, at least we didn't give up another shortie.

1-0 Vegas after 20, and after 20:40, it was 2-0 Vegas. Yikes. Avs received another power play, and here's where the craziness happened. So Valeri Nichushkin's shot was gloved the Schmid, yet I hear the announcers talk about the possibility that the puck went past the line. So the refs look at it. It looked close, it looked really close. They took a good bit to looke at it. Finally, it was ruled that while it was gloved, it was gloved past the line! So in the immortal words of iconic NHL announcer Sam Rosen, "It's a Power Play Goal!" It's fitting that I mention Rosen, becasue minutes later, Jimmy Vesey, who we got in a trade with the New York Rangers, tied it up--his first goal with the Avs.

Third period felt like overtime; well, at least it started to as time winded down. Avs received a PP after a delay of game penalty--the second one committed by Vegas. That's killed off by a Joel Kiviranta penalty that turned it into a four-on-four. Both penalties were dealt with, and then, Keaton Middleton decided to join the delay of game party by "yeeting" that puck right in to the glass. No doubt there. Yikes. Thankfully, we killed that off. Overtime came, and that gave us point #99 in the standings. Avs controlled it for the most part, but both teams had chances. Then with 45 seconds left, the refs really show their asses.

They call Devon Toews for hooking. Where?! Where was the hook?! Show me where!! The refs aren't even trying to hide the fact that they work for Vegas, it's written all over their faces. So Vegas got a PP for the rest of OT, but it was killed off, and the game went to a shootout. Only one goal was scored in the shootout, and it was Charlie Coyle who put it in. I'll be honest, I wasn't feeling him in that third round after Nelson and MacKinnon. I expected Makar or Lehkonen, but Coyle did it!

With the shootout win, that's point #100 in the standings for the Avalanche, and we're back on the winning track! In addition, the win cements us in the Central Top 3, where we'll most likely be locked in at 3rd place. And here's some more laughs. While we were still playing, the Dallas Stars had a 5-2 lead over the Vancouver Canucks with 60 seconds left in regulation. Yet the Nucks scored three goals in 54 seconds to tie it, and then the Nucks won in OT. That's who we'll be facing in Round 1. Yeah, we don't need home ice against those characters.

And the news gets better for us:

He's close, folks! He's on his way back! Our captain, Gabriel Landeskog, is working with the Colorado Eagles in the AHL. This is the closest that Landeskog has come to coming back and joining us. The last time Landeskog took the ice was on Sunday evening, June 26, 2022--the very night that we won the Stanley Cup. As captain, Landeskog was the first to touch the Cup, and Erik Johnson, who we just got back, was the second. We've waited for this. We've longed for this. If Landeskog is back for the playoffs, oh man. I dare say that #4 will be a foregone conclusion.

Next up is our last home game of the regular season against the very team who humiliated the Stars--the Vancouver Canucks. That's going to be very awesome!

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