For the better part of the first period and into the intermission, the Colorado Avalanche didn’t know if Cale Makar was going to return to the game. The superstar defenseman took a hit from Marcus Foligno on his second shift of the game and went down the tunnel to the dressing room.
He ended up returning to start the second period. And with a little less than 17 minutes remaining in regulation, Makar fired a wrist shot past goalie Jesper Wallstedt to score the go-ahead goal in a chaotic 9-6 Avalanche victory over the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 at Ball Arena.
Makar later added a second goal, to go with the assist he recorded earlier in the evening. He still played 17:11 despite playing just 1:11 in the first period.
“What a beast,” Avalanche center Nazem Kadri said. “I mean, I never question that guy. Regardless of what was going on with him, he came back and came back in a big way.”
Fourteen different players scored in this game. For the Avalanche, Makar was the only skater on either team with more than one. On the Avs’ side, he was joined by Sam Malinski, Jack Drury, Artturi Lehkonen, Nick Blankenburg, Devon Toews, Kadri, and Nathan MacKinnon.
Toews also added three assists to lead the way with four points. Martin Necas (three assists), Valeri Nichushkin (two assists), MacKinnon (goal, two assists), Lehkonen (goal, assist), and Malinski (goal, assist) also had multiple points for the Avalanche, who broke a franchise record for goals in a playoff game.
It was also the most goals combined in a playoff game in franchise history. Overall, a difficult game to try to explain.
“Weird one. Kind of tough to get into a rhythm,” Makar said. “Tried to get back into it. I felt like we did a good job of that. It was just such a weird game in terms of the flow of it. Obviously, you don’t want to miss that time, but it is what it is.”
Amid all the chaos, the game winner came off the stick of Kadri. His tally made it 7-5 before the Wild ended up getting one back. Makar’s second tally and MacKinnon’s empty netter followed suit.
Kadri was a -3, as he was on the ice for four Minnesota goals before his big tally. The play started in the Avs’ zone. Toews blocked a shot, and the puck landed on Ross Colton’s stick. The winger quickly sent Kadri in with room to skate. Rather than taking it all the way in on the goalie, Kadri stopped short and fired it low glove side past Wallstedt for his first of the postseason.
“I feel like I was in a pretty good scoring area,” Kadri said. “Ross made a nice pass to spring me on the half breakaway. Been watching a lot of this goaltender, so picked my spot, and definitely picked it properly.”
Coming off a full week’s rest, the Avalanche scored three goals in 1:59 to blow the roof off the arena. It was a nice change from a first-round series that was more defensive. The Avs flexed their speed, skill, and tenacious forecheck to help the offense get going.
First, Necas sent a pass to Malinski as he entered the zone. Malinski got to the top of the right circle and fired a wrist shot past Wallstedt to open the scoring at 11:12. The Avs sent out their fourth line on the ensuing shift, and they didn’t take long to add to the lead.
Logan O’Connor pressured Jacob Middleton in the corner. The Wild defenseman whiffed on the puck, O’Connor picked it up and quickly sent it to an open Drury, and he put it past Wallstedt to double the score.
Minnesota had let in just four goals at five on five to the Dallas Stars in the first round. But suddenly, Colorado had two in 52 seconds and ended up with seven. On the ensuing shift, Brock Faber got into a post-whistle tussle with Gabe Landeskog. It was frustrations from the Minnesota side, and the officials gave Faber an extra two minutes to send the Avs on the power play.
Just 49 seconds later, Lehkonen finished a beautiful play that started on the stick of Necas before MacKinnon came speeding into the Wild zone. MacKinnon put the shot on goal, got the rebound, and sent it to Lehkonen for a shot at an open net with nobody but the Wild defenseman in front of him.
It felt like the Avs had control of the game. But the Wild aren’t the same defensive-minded team they’ve been for years. After acquiring Quinn Hughes, the Wild had 178 goals in 50 games, which was eight more than Colorado’s 170.
Before the period ended, Marcus Johansson and Ryan Hartman cut into the lead, making it a one-goal game.
The second period saw more chaos. Just 4:16 into the period, Blankenburg was shot out of a cannon, flying up the left wing with open ice. Nichushkin sent a beautiful pass to him, and he scored his first career postseason goal. The Avs went up 4-2.
Goals from Vladimir Tarasenko and Hughes evened the score for the first time, with the latter of the goals coming with 6:17 remaining in the period.
Both teams continued to skate up and down the ice, taking advantage of open ice. With 3:59 remaining, Faber was called for a hooking penalty. On the ensuing power play, the Avalanche erased all the goodwill of their first PP. They spent 54 seconds fumbling the puck on their entries.
Landeskog tried to pass it to MacKinnon at the blueline, but the Avs’ star centerman mishandled the puck, and lost his footing before he can track back. The Wild had a 2-on-0 breakaway, and Marcus Foligno scored shorthanded to give them their first lead of the game.
Colorado didn’t let that goal take them out of the game. Just 1:09 later, a point shot from Toews beat Wallstedt with several bodies, including Lehkonen, screening the goalie in front. It was 5-5 heading into the second intermission, with a whopping 55 shots on goal between both teams combined through 40 minutes of play, with Colorado holding a 30-25 edge.
“We had to wake up after two periods. Luckily, we were fortunate to be in a good spot. It was a tie game going into the third on home ice,” Landeskog said. “We turned it on the third. We just wanted to check better, and we did, but we had to work for it.”
Good: The Avalanche Came Out Flying
Far too many people were reading too much into the Avalanche’s lack of goals in the first round. It was a defense-heavy series against a team in Los Angeles that wanted nothing to do with a run-and-gun game against Colorado. The Avs played the same way, by design, and made quick work of the Kings.
But this isn’t the Los Angeles Kings. And this isn’t the same game plan. The Avalanche came out flying to start the game and were all over the ice from start to finish. Even with the defensive breakdowns (which I’ll get more into shortly), the offense never let up. The Avalanche will need to play much better defense to win this series. The Wild feel the same way.
Bad: Breakdowns, Turnovers, and Boneheaded plays
For as good as Colorado was offensively, they made far too many mistakes and let the Wild do way too much with the puck. And a lot of it was caused by their own mistakes. Especially in the first 40 minutes. The second period, particularly, was a struggle for Colorado on that side of the puck.
Brent Burns didn’t have a great game. The pairing with him and Blankenburg was not great. They probably need Josh Manson back more than they thought. I’m sure the Wild feel the same about Jonas Brodin.
It might just be one of those games. But there was a lot to clean up.
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