DENVER — It wasn’t quite the way they had drawn it up, but the Avalanche accomplished what they set out to do on Friday against the Anaheim Ducks. They won their first game of the season, they dominated play, and most importantly, they did it while overcoming adversity — twice.
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Colorado surrendered the first two goals, both in the first period, before fighting back to earn a 4-3 victory. They led 3-2 late in the third but gave up the game-tying goal with 12.9 seconds remaining. Then, Nathan MacKinnon was the hero in overtime — capping off what was a crazy game in many ways.
Anaheim’s goalie Lukas Dostal came into the game with a .933 save percentage and nearly escaped Ball Arena with another victory. He made 45 saves as The Ducks were outshot 49-19. Colorado dominated seemingly from the opening puck drop but needed almost 52 minutes to finally lead in this game.
“Our goal was to try and come out and play that way, to that identity,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “Because for the guys that hadn’t been here, like that is the identity of our team like so try and sustain it for as long and as hard as we possibly can. And it certainly did not come easy.”
In the first period, the Avs had an 18-8 advantage in shots on goal but gave up the only two goals that were scored. In the second, they got a breakaway goal from Casey Mittelstadt and dominated with a 17-3 shot advantage. And in the third, they started with a 4-on-3 power play and scored twice before the eventual winner in OT.
Colorado finally has its first two points in the standings. It was great hockey for most of the night, but it wasn’t by any means a pretty game. And you could probably thank the shoddy officiating in the first period for what could’ve been a disastrous loss. You guessed it, today’s ‘Bad’ wasn’t an Avs player.
As for the ‘Good?’ Give that to the hero in the third period. More on him after we talk about the mess in the first period.
Bad: Officiating
I don’t like doing this and I usually don’t. But there’s something to be said about how the officiating nearly let this game slip away from the Avalanche with one of the worst missed calls I’ve seen in quite some time. You could argue the officials had a role in both Anaheim goals, but the first one was a 50-50 call. I’ll gladly assume that the referee behind the Avalanche goal had a clear sight of the puck and felt it wasn’t covered or handled well enough by Josh Manson to blow it dead. Kudos to the Ducks for being persistent and hounding at the puck until it crossed the goal line. That’s what you’re supposed to do in that situation.
But the second goal? No excuse. The puck deflected into the netting behind the Avs goal. All 10 players on the ice saw it, the entire Avalanche bench saw it. And more than 18,000 fans in the crowd saw it. But somehow, the referees did not.
The puck came down and landed on Samuel Girard’s stick. And while yes, Girard made a boneheaded play to turn it over after shooting it off the boards into the neutral zone, it still doesn’t excuse the missed call. Everyone on the ice, including the Ducks players, was standing around waiting for the whistle. Girard was rattled and didn’t quite know what to do. Anaheim picked up the puck, entered the zone, and fired it past Alexandar Georgiev to make it 2-0. Brutal, terrible, and inexcusable.
Good: Ross Colton
I don’t think Ross Colton should ever go back to playing center. At least not until the Avalanche are fully healthy — if they ever actually get everyone back at the same time. Last year, whenever the Avalanche had injury troubles, we asked Bednar several times if he had thought of putting Colton back on the wing — the position he played with Tampa Bay. But Bednar made it clear the move was not possible because of the lack of center depth. At the time, Colorado had Ryan Johansen and Fredrik Olofsson as the other centers and neither of them was on the roster when the playoffs began. But now with Casey Mittelstadt doing his thing in the top six, Bednar finally can shift Colton to the wing when needed. And with Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, and Jonathan Drouin all missing from the lineup, he’s needed it now more than ever.
Colton scored both Avalanche goals in the third period and each of them was set up by one of the Avs’ top two centers.
To start the third period, Mittelstadt played center on a short Avalanche 4-on-3 power play because MacKinnon was serving the final 34 seconds of his penalty. Colorado quickly set up in the offensive zone and Mittelstadt set up Colton for a one-timer to tie the game up at 2-2. Despite the power play coming to an end, the Avs continued to cycle the puck in the offensive zone as if they were on the man advantage. Anaheim was hanging on by a thread and on its heels for most of the night. And it became too much.
At five-on-five, Colton spent the evening on the wing with Mikko Rantanen and MacKinnon — the same spot he ended the game on Wednesday against Boston. His second of the evening and fourth of the season was set up by MacKinnon.
Colton had two goals, and his linemates combined for five.
