Avalanche Game 54 Recap: Dominant in DC

As John Wick would say, "I'm thinking we're back!"

The Colorado Avalanche entered the fifth and penultimate game of this road trip on a bad skid. 0-3-1 in our last four games, and coming off a shutout loss in Sunrise, Florida. For this go-around, it's a trip to Our Nation's Capital to face off against the Washington Capitals, one of two teams who were on the receiving end of a Nathan MacKinnon four-goal performance this season.

The goalie matchup was Alexandar Georgiev vs Charlie Lindgren, which disappointed me, because I wanted to see Darcy Kuemper out there for Washington. The shots were coming in fast from both sides, Colorado had a good opportunity that was stopped, but shortly afterwards, Ross Colton broke away and made it 1-0 for the Avs; the first Avs goal scored since those crazy two goals against the Hurricanes. The assists came from Miles Wood and Artturi Lehkonen, and just over two minutes later, Devon Toews made it 2-0 for Colorado. The assists came from a pair of players who hadn't had points in an eternity: Ryan Johansen and Andrew Cogliano. So it was 2-0 within the first five minutes, and it looked like it would be an easy blowout for the Avs, only for Beck Malenstyn and Connor McMichael to score 44 seconds apart for Washington.

After 20 minutes, and only two penalties (one aside), it was 2-2. Both teams pressed for the go-ahead goal, while also maintaining their discipline for the most part. Lindgren and Georgiev were stopping shots left and right, but the former couldn't stop Lehkonen's shot, as it went past him at 8:50. The first penalty of the period came very late: Too Many Men on the Caps. Alex Ovechkin served that minor, and on the Power Play, it was Mikko Rantanen ending a serious goal drought with his 29th to make it 4-2. Lehkonen's primary assist served as his third point of the game, and the secondary assist came from Nathan MacKinnon, giving him 86 points.

Avs led 4-2 entering the third period, but started the final frame shorthanded due to Rantanen's tripping penalty. That got killed off, and the Avs were in victory mode for the most part of the period. They had an early PP that got killed off, but Washington's power play wasn't. Take a wild guess who scored that goal. Yep. Alex Ovechkin, the king of the power play goals, added another one to his tally, and for him, that's his 836th of his career, and his sixth straight game with a goal. Caps were really looking to tie it up, and I'll be honest, I was really afraid that Ovi would strike again. When he's on a goal scoring roll, he stays on it. Lindgren got pulled for the extra attacker, and that saw some crazy close calls for the Avs on the empty net. The Avs finally got one in at 19:01, and it was Lehkonen--second goal of the game and fourth point as well. MacKinnon and Rantanen assisted, and that was point #87 for Mack. Miles wood added another empty netter, and that would seal the final score: 6-3 for the Avs.

We needed this one! Too many Avalanche fans started panicking after that loss to Florida. I said it before. Yes, a lull like this sucks, but there's still a lot of time left in the season. Plus, we had a February lull last season. How'd we end up? Just relax. Just chill. We will be fine. This win was just the beginning. MacKinnon had two points, Rantanen had two, and Lehkonen had four! The big boys are scoring again. We even had a power play goal! We will take over the home stretch once it begins. Count on it.

The Avalanche's six-game road trip ends on Thursday at an arena that is very special to us fans: Amalie Arena. Other than being the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was on that very ice that the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup. Plus, it'll be very interesting to see MacKinnon vs Kucherov head-to-head this deep in their points race. Right now, Kucherov's leading 89-87, but there's time for MacKinnon to take over!

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