Postgame: Vegas Stuns Avalanche Again, Leaves Colorado One Loss from Humiliation

The Colorado Avalanche imploded in Game 3 on Sunday, falling 5-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights, and are now on the brink of elimination. Not only did they blow a three-goal lead, but they were hit with injuries to Valeri Nushkin and Nathan MacKinnon along the way.

Colorado’s three goals all came in the first period. The Golden Knights scored three times in the second and added the game-winner in the third, and an empty netter to seal a third straight win. Colorado was held off the scoresheet in both frames.

The Avs find themselves down 3-0 in the Western Conference Final with their Presidents’ Trophy season on the line on Tuesday. It took just five days to shift from total confidence to a nightmare scenario. And once again, it felt like it was self inflicted.

“Everything” Bednar said, when asked what went wrong after the first period. “Yeah, the first nine minutes (of the second) kind of looked like portions of Game 1 for me and parts of Game 2 where we mismanaged the puck on breakouts. Then they just got more competitive and we didn’t stay with that intensity.”

Gabe Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, and Jack Drury scored for the Avalanche, while Mark Stone was amon the goal scorers for Vegas in his first game back from injury. Tomas Hertl had the game-winner with 11:39 remaining.

Scott Wedgewood made just 18 saves, giving up three goals on eight shots in the second period. Carter Hart countered with 32 shots, including all 19 he faced after the first period.

Amid the nightmare middle frame, MacKinnon blocked a shot that seemed to hit the side of his knee. The play had to be stopped to help him up, but he ended up skating off on his own and remaining on the bench. MacKinnon took two more shifts, one 32 seconds and the other 16 seconds, before limping down the hallway with a few minutes remaining in the second period.

He didn’t return to start the third but eventually made his way back. He wasn’t taking regular shifts after that and was laboring when he did.

Meanwhile, Nichushkin didn’t take a shift for the final 22 minutes of the game. Bednar did not have an update on either player.

Colorado came out flying from the opening drop of the puck. Landeskog had two big chances before his first shift was over, and Nathan MacKinnon had a breakaway that was robbed by Hart inthe earlygoing. The Avs didn’t let up, and didn’t need long to get the first goal.

On the second shift for the top line, Toews carried the puck to the net and was hooked as he slid it on goal. Before the Knights could touch the puck, Landeskog tapped home the rebound to make it 1-0 at 3:21.

Colorado didn’t let up. Under four minutes later, a feed from Martin Necas to Kadri made it 2-0 off a clean shot from just inside the circle. Kadri’s third of the postseason made it 2-0 for the Avs before the Golden Knights had two shots.

The Avalanche eventually had an unsuccessful power play. At the tail end of it, Kadri took a penalty to give Vegas its first man-advantage opportunity. But before they can get through it, Jack Drury extended the lead to three goals with a nice deke move on Hart.

Before Drury scored, Pavel Dorofeyev thought he had a power-play goal. He seemed to cross-check the puck into the net, but the officials instantly waved it off for hitting his glove. Dorofeyev argued that it went in off his stick. After a lengthy review, the call on the ice remained, and Vegas’ power play continued.

The Avalanche dominated every aspect of the first period and had a 17-7 shot advantage at the break. But then it was all undone in one period.

Vegas had 1:20 of a carryover power play to work with in the second period — something that Colorado had several times in the first two games. Unlike the Avs, the Knights didn’t let it bother them. And captain Mark Stone scored in his first game back just 19 seconds into the period.

At the 4:05 mark, William Karlsson added another one before Keegan Kolesar evened the score at 3-3 at 12:46. What Colorado did for 9:51 in the first period, Vegas matched in 12:27.

Bad: Stunned Once Again

I’ve written about this for days, but it certainly feels like everytime the Vegas Golden Knights score their first goal of the game, it completely shifts everything in their favor. Is it the momentum they get from it or is it that the Avalanche are just completely stunned everytime they let in a goal?

It’s probably a little bit of both. But for Colorado’s case, it’s completely unacceptable for this to happen. This was the team that was supposed to be the veteran group with the right mindset and the ability to overcome everything that gets tossed their way.

This was the team that blew a three-goal lead to Minnesota only to tie it up and score four more times in the third with ease. This was the team that gave up a goal to the Los Angeles Kings late in regulation of a 0-0 game only to even the score and win in overtime to stay on track for a first-round sweep. They were setting up for this to be a series where they prove that they have what it takes to play with a club like Vegas that has been here five times in nine years.

Instead, they lost their game, their focus, and their system for the third game in a row after the opposition got one goal past Wedgewood.

Good: Vegas Finds a Way

Everything I wrote above is exactly what the Golden Knights are able to do. They’re the ones that are finding ways to win, to overcome deficits, to, in the words of head coach John Tortorella, “Showed some balls.”

“for nine minutes. A little bit of communication, some talk and we just didn’t dig in and match their intensity at the start of the second quick enough. For me, it’s those nine minutes, those two goals, pretty much an onslaught. After they score the second goal and the TV timeout, things kind of started to change a little bit for us. We got the power play. We got a couple Nelson chances on the rush and more zone time. Then they just chipped away at that one-goal, and they were able to win the hockey game. 

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