Avalanche Game 65 Recap: New Team, Who Dis?

The trade deadline has come and gone, and it was a fruitful one for the Colorado Avalanche. Moments before the 7-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings, the Avs traded for Casey Mittelstadt and Sean Walker. A day later, the Avs traded for two more players; first off, the Avs acquired Brandon Duhaime from the Minnesota Wild, and also traded for Yakov Trenin, formerly of the Nashville Predators. Also, the Avalanche dealt Ben Meyers to the Anaheim Ducks for a draft pick.

So yeah, we definitely got ourselves a bounty, and I am getting a 2022 vibe here. It's back to work for the Avs, and it's the third and last game of the brief homestand. Our opponents: Brandon Duhaime's former team, the Minnesota Wild. It's always interesting when the Avs and Wild get together; being division rivals for almost a quarter-century will do it. All four newly acquired players debuted for the Avs, and regarding the netminders, it was Alexandar Georgiev in net against Filip Gustavsson. However, in the very first minute, Artturi Lehkonen (one of our trade deadline acquisitions from 2022) made it 1-0, and the lone assist came from Nathan MacKinnon, giving him 110 points.

As for the rest of the period, the Avs had the first power play of the season, but it was killed off, though Mittlestadt was really playing hard on the team's second unit. Josh Manson (another 2022 deadline acquisition) was called for hooking, leading to the Wild's first power play, which was killed off. The teams traded PPs once more in the first frame, though ours should have become a two-man. Both were kaput, and it was 1-0 Avs after 20. The pressing from the first period continued in the second. It looked like the Avs would make it 2-0, but that would not happen. However, the Wild did succeed in tying it up, it was Brock Faber at 10:44, with the assists coming from Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek. We would see the Wild receive a pair of power plays, while getting away with a number of things, but thankfully, we killed off those penalties.

The third period was quite eventful. Miraculously, the Avs received a PP, but nothing came of it. The period continued to progress with nothing going in. Trenin lost his stick with about six minutes left, and Andrew Cogliano tossing said stick at a flying puck resulted in a penalty shot for Mats Zuccarello. Thankfully, Georgiev stopped it, and he later stopped a breakaway chance from Kaprizov. Even better, Devon Toews broke the tie, but it was challenged for offsides, and the challenge was right. So the goal was removed, and after the final minutes ticked off, we had overtime.

The Avs entered this game with a 4-5 record past regulation; 2-3 in overtime and 2-1 in the shootout. The Avs won the faceoff and controlled the puck, so much so that Kaprizov committed a hooking penalty. The Avs had MacKinnon, Lehkonen, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar out there on the PP; the shots were racking up, but nothing in yet. The Wild actually managed to control the puck all the way to the Avs zone, but the Avs regained the puck and got the PP going. The result: MacKinnon got the puck to Rantanen, who passed it to Valeri Nichushkin, who put it in to give the Avs a 2-1 victory in overtime!

Welcome back, Valeri Nichushkin! This game was Val's first since January 10, as he had spent nearly two months in the player assistance program. Prior to this, Nichushkin was kicking ass for us, especially on the power play, though ol' #13 showed that he hadn't lost a step. This is definitely the same player who scored four goals in the 2022 Cup Final. With MacKinnon's second assist of the game, that puts him at 111 points, which matches his career high from last season. For the Avs, this was win #40, but unfortunately, we don't move up the Central Division ladder. We enjoyed second place for a brief moment, then the Seattle Kraken decided to make Laurent Brossoit look like his teammate Connor Hellebuyck. The Dallas Stars blew out the Anaheim Ducks, so the placement for the three teams remains the same.

The Avalanche have three days off before heading across the Northern border for three straight games; part of a four-game road trip. First on the docket: a trip to Calgary to face off against the Flames on Tuesday, though it's Saturday, March 16, that I'm looking forward to, as that's our first meeting of the season against the Edmonton Oilers.

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