Avalanche suffer heartbreaking loss to Jets in playoff opene
The Colorado Avalanche hit a rough patch ahead of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They suffered a 7–0 loss to the Winnipeg Jets in their last regular season matchup, so the seven-game series was going to be a battle until the very end.
Connor Hellebuyck was going to be a hard goaltender to beat, but the Colorado offense was certainly capable of the task.
For the first game of the series, the Avalanche gave the Jets a hard-fought game. Despite falling to Winnipeg 7–6 in a heartbreaking five minutes, the Avalanche have a good foundation to build upon and will be dangerous for the remaining series.
The good
The team offensively exploded in the first period. Valeri Nichushkin lit the lamp first at the six-minute mark and was greatly outshooting their opponent.
Val Nichushkin’s SNIPE breaks the ice for Colorado in Game 1
Though quickly down by one in the first period, the Avalanche turned things around in 18 seconds.
Miles Wood tied it up on a point-blank shot, quickly followed by a cannon from Nathan MacKinnon to take the lead once again. Colorado grossly outplayed the Jets in the first period, but got unlucky on the goals against.
The team scored on both power play opportunities. Artturi Lehkonen’s power play goal in the third period encouraged the rest of the team to step up to the plate and bring the game within one goal in the last seconds.
Colorado put up 45 shots on the net in the heartbreaking loss, almost double of Winnipeg. The offensive zone presence was dangerous.
Arguably, the most important part of the game was not just the goals for the team, but also the way they scored them. Despite being down 6–3 in the third period, the Avalanche still put up three goals, making the Jets work for the victory until the end.
The perseverance and determination were admirable and will be a weapon in their next game on Tuesday.
The bad
Unfortunately, the Jets capitalized on every single mistake the Avalanche made, whether big or small. During the first period, they tied up the game on a shot from the blue line through traffic and leaving Colorado goaltender Alexandar Georgiev blind to the location of the puck.
Josh Manson set the scene for the second goal on a turnover, quickly giving Winnipeg a 2–1 lead.
