Recap: Avalanche defeat Wild in overtime thriller

6 months ago  /  Mile High Hockey

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports


This game could’ve gone either way. Well that was fun, wasn’t it!?
The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Minnesota Wild in Overtime tonight by a final score of 2-1. This game promised plenty of excitement, as Colorado added the four new arrivals of Casey Mittelstadt, Sean Walker, Yakov Trenin, and Brandon Duhaime into the lineup, but also saw Valeri Nichushkin make his long-awaited return.
The game matched the excitement leading up to the puck drop to a tee, and we were given an excellent hockey game on Divisional Rival Night.
Let’s break it down.
First Period
The Avalanche wasted no time setting the tone out of the gate. The top line of Artturi Lehkonen, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen got on the board 42 seconds into the contest. MacKinnon worked his magic and sent a beautiful backhand pass from below the goal line, which Lehkonen collected in stride and outwaited Filip Gustavsson before firing the puck in on the backhand, 1-0 Colorado.


Artturi kicking things off!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/VZjflItGZp— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) March 9, 2024




This goal helped set the tone, but this looked like a group that was incorporating some new pieces. No one looked bad, but there are some kinks to work out implementing the new pieces into the system. Regardless of the chemistry that needs to form with time, everyone was flying, and no one looked like they couldn’t keep up.
The only thing that couldn’t keep up was my stream for this game, as it was extremely choppy in the early going.
Anyways, there were a few penalties handed out, two aside to be exact, and that made it even more difficult to get a flow established. Mikko Rantanen and Frederick Gaudreau went for tripping, Josh Manson went for hooking, and Jon Merrill went for slashing.
Nothing came out of any of the penalties, and the Avs skated into the dressing room with a one-goal lead.
Second Period
The Wild came out for the second period with extra jump, and it benefited them greatly. The top forward lines established a tone that surged through the lineup, and they gave the Avs a lot of trouble getting a groove going offensively.
There was more penalty trouble for the Avalanche in this period, which contributed to the issue even further. Lehkonen went to the box for holding Adam Beckman in the middle of the frame, and Rantanen took his second penalty of the contest late with a hold on Matt Boldy.
In between the two penalties, the Wild got on the scoreboard. After the Wild won a puck battle in the corner, Kirill Kaprizov fired a pass across the ice to rookie Defenseman Brock Faber, who with time and space walked in on Georgiev and ripped one past the blocker side to tie the game at 1-1.


!!! ' !#mnwild #NHL pic.twitter.com/VDoWHpJiKd— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) March 9, 2024




I feel like Georgiev could’ve played this shot better as it looked like Faber was able to fool him with the eyes, but there aren’t any serious problems with Georgiev here.
Nonetheless, the game was tied again, and this is the score the game would head into intermission. A nailbiter of a third period was on tap.
Third Period
The final frame started no better, as only 32 seconds in Georgiev had to stop a Matt Boldy one-timer on a 2-on-1 rush. Fortunately, this woke the Avs up a bit, and they got on their horse.


Big save from Georgie!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/JD8dhXyUQW— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) March 9, 2024




The Avalanche pressured immensely all period, heavily dominating possession and scoring chances. They had a heavy corsi advantage in the third period (41-24) and had eight high-danger chances compared to Minnesota’s two. Solving Gustavsson a second time proved to be a difficult final step.
Late in the period, Andrew Cogliano made a massive blunder. He tried to slyly make a defensive play with a broken stick on the ice, and the officials saw it. The Wild were awarded with a penalty shot, which was shot by Mats Zuccarello, and he had Georgiev beat to the backhand, but couldn’t place it where he wanted it.


Georgiev stops Zuccarello on the penalty shot pic.twitter.com/ODCq9PaPYF— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 9, 2024




Moments later, Georgiev would again have to answer the call, as a bad step from Devon Toews resulted in a breakaway from Kaprizov. The superstar Russian rung iron, the Avs took the puck the other way, but almost immediately turned it over. Kaprizov would get a second opportunity at a breakaway after cherry-picking the Avs defense, and this time Georgiev stuffed him not once, but twice to keep the game nodded.


Not in Georgie's jungle!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/i24tXh8QCr— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) March 9, 2024




With just over two minutes to go, the Avalanche finally solved Gustavsson again. Girard sent a slap pass down to Toews, who deflected the puck home from the middle of the high slot. It was a beautiful play, and it appeared that Colorado was going to pry a victory out of a game that was deadlocked as tight as they come.
Unfortunately, the Minnesota Wild challenged the call on the ice, as they saw on their monitors that Rantanen entered the zone prematurely. A quick review resulted in the goal being overturned, and this would lead this game into Overtime.
Overtime
In overtime, Colorado got graced with an early powerplay, after Kaprizov got his stick into Cale Makar’s hands. After the overturned game-winner from Toews in regulation, an answer to re-gain the two points was a must to avoid a heartbreaking end to an exciting day for Avalanche fans.
The Avs would get their answer late on the man advantage, and it came from Valeri Nichushkin, who re-entered the lineup for the first time since January 10 after a stint in the NHL Player’s Assistance Program. The Choo-Choo Train parked himself net front, Rantanen fired a pass into the low slot, and Nichushkin cleaned up the loose change after a couple of whacks.


Chugga chugga CHU CHU #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/DdtUk28aQg— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) March 9, 2024




Colorado, icing five players who didn’t play Wednesday night against the Detroit Red Wings, defeated the Minnesota Wild in OT 2-1. With their 40th win on the campaign, they move to a clean 40-20-5 record.
Key Takeaways
Nathan MacKinnon had assists on both Avs tallies tonight, moving his home point streak up to 32 consecutive games. This brings his season point total to 111 on the season, while stretching his lead over Nikita Kucherov for the NHL’s scoring title to 5 points. With 10 points in the last 3 contests, he appears to be ramped up for a late-season sprint to the finish line for the Art Ross Trophy, which is going to be a huge piece of the Hart Trophy MVP race, which is seeing Connor McDavid re-enter the conversation alongside MacKinnon and Kucherov.
The new guys were fine. I liked Sean Walker in particular. He’s going to be a very nice fit moving forward. Casey Mittelstadt got better and appeared more comfortable as the game progressed I thought, while Yakov Trenin paced the new forwards in TOI (15:29) largely thanks to a busy PK night. He lost some faceoffs on the PK and his line was on the ice for the Faber goal, but his body of work tonight was inspiring. Brandon Duhaime only skated 7:11 but drew a penalty early.
Alex Georgiev was solid again tonight. He turned aside 29-of-30 Wild shots on goal, and in the dying minutes of the third period came up huge on Zuccarello and Kaprizov. The Wild ended the night with a 4.25 xGF to the Avs 3.44. Colorado doesn’t win without this performance in net tonight, as he has to be just as good as Filip Gustavsson.
Not related to the game, but Nikolai Kovalenko and Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod play in Game 5 of their opening round KHL playoff series against SKA St. Petersburg tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. MST. Torpedo trails the series 3 games to 1, so a loss tomorrow ends their season. If that’s the case, Nikolai Kovalenko could be an option for the Avs as early as next week. The Avalanche do embark on a four-game Western Canadian road trip early next week, so I wonder if Kovalenko is directed to fly to Denver, meet with available coaches and get acclimated to his new situation, and be ready to join in drills and games in the other side of the trip in late March. Something to monitor as the Avs enter a weekend layoff.
Upcoming
The Avalanche aren’t back in action until Tuesday night when they visit Nazem Kadri and the Calgary Flames. Puck drop for that contest will be at 7:00 p.m. MST. This will be the start of the Avs' Western Canada road trip, playing in Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton, before heading to St. Louis to close off the trip against the Blues.
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