Things were supposed to be different as the Western Conference Final series between the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights shifted to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. And for a period it appeared the visitors were back on track, but ultimately a collapse led to a 5-2 loss as the Avalanche are now in a 0-3 series deficit and on the brink of elimination.
The Game
First, the fun stuff.
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Gabe Landeskog opened the scoring just three minutes into the game, giving Avalanche fans a sense of relief that the required fast start did, in fact, come to fruition. Four minutes later Nazem Kadri added to the lead on a slick pass from Martin Nečas.
On a Vegas power play it appeared that Pavel Dorofeyev scored as the puck hit off the shaft of his stick. The officials initially waived it off thinking the puck hit his hand. Apparently video evidence as in inclusive so the original no-goal call stood. A break for the Avalanche and they doubled down on it in short order as Jack Drury took the puck shorthanded and made a nice deke to beat Carter Hart to the post. A 3-0 lead and 16-7 shot advantage was just what the doctor ordered for Colorado after 20 minutes of play.
Unfortunately this game lasted longer than 20 minutes as the positives started unraveling almost immediately as the second period began. Mark Stone, just off the injured list himself scored on the power play just 19 seconds into the frame. No time to panic but William Karlsson scored for Vegas four minutes later to officially get back in the game. Keegan Kolesar tipped a Dylan Coghlan shot at the midpoint to tie the game at 3-3 and Vegas didn’t look back.
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In the third period Colorado looked cooked as they could only muster seven shots on goal. Vegas got the go-ahead tally as Tomas Hertl walked Sam Malinski and shot the puck past Scott Wedgewood at the midpoint of the period. Colorado received their fourth power play late in the frame but looked laughably disjointed on it. Then, it was only a matter of time before Vegas cashed in on the empty net from Brett Howden to arrive at the 5-2 final score and 0-3 series deficit for the Avalanche.
Takeaways
Injuries will become a major talking point (excuse) moving forward. Despite getting Cale Makar back at clearly less than 100% this contest unfortunately saw Nathan MacKinnon take a puck off of his knee late in the second period. He tried to come back in the third but only lasted a shift until he was put on power play and extra attacker only duty. Val Nichushkin also was absent the entire third period with an undisclosed ailment. There was no update on either player in the post game.
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This seemed like the game where things were going right for the Avalanche. With the three-goal lead and a crucial call that went their way, things were unfolding nicely to at least give the Avalanche some much-needed momentum if only for one game. The most alarming part is how that success was so short-lived, they couldn’t even get this game to overtime. Postgame Jared Bednar admitted morale is cratering. Can this team muster up enough moxie to make it a series or is it already over?
Upcoming
One more contest in Vegas for Game 4 as the Avalanche hope to begin the road to saving their season. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. MT on Tuesday, May 26th.
