Avalanche Game 78 Recap: Never Give Up

By the time the main event of the second and final night of WrestleMania rolled around, another main event started in the NHL: the Colorado Avalanche's big meeting with the Dallas Stars. This game, in the eyes of every Avs fan, would determine our chances of winning the Central Division. Alexandar Georgiev was in net against Jake Oettinger, which put me at ease. Sean Walker scored 61 seconds into the game, which definitely put all of us at ease.

The period, however, was starting to go like the last game. Georgiev was stopping everything, while our goal stood as our only shot for more than half a period. Thanks to Gorgeous George, it was 1-0 for the longest time, and it looked like the period would end that way. Then Matt Duchene and his seven-year chip on his shoulder happened. Two minutes later, Jamie Benn happened. Interesting note: that goal was scored right after Cody Rhodes finished his story and won the title over Roman Reigns, so I was too busy drinking in that moment to even be flustered over the Avs being down 2-1 after 20.

Plus, I figured we'd get out of it like we usually do.

Avs received a powere play barely before that period ended, but it was killed off in the second period. We got another one later, and it was Artturi Lehkonen who tied it up! So yeah, we were about to do our thing, and then, Walker was called for high-sticking. A double minor at that. Oh boy. Roope Hintz capitalized and made it 3-2 for Dallas, and that was in the first half of that double minor. So Dallas still had a full two minutes of PP time afterwards, and that allowed Tyler Seguin to cash in. So the worst is over, right? Nope. Cale Makar ended up in the box, Dallas received yet another power play, and they scored yet again. Mason Marchment made it 5-2 for Dallas. Oh boy. We had to dig our way out of another hole. Brandon Duhaime helped out a bit. He made it 5-3 right before the period ended.

So we had a chance. Jonathan Drouin also helped matters in the third by making it a one goal game, but Wyatt Johnston had to be Wyatt Johnston. His 31st goal made it 6-4, and the empty netter that followed left a lot of Avs fans crestfallen.

I'm not going to go on a soapbox for Alexandar Georgiev, because I did that already on social media and already shut down unfair and biased haters. I'm just going to cut to the chase and talk about the Central Division, mainly our chances of finishing first again. Many fans are saying that we can forget about winning the division. Let me say this. This was the only time we lost to Dallas this season. Yet it sucks that this loss is the one that puts a big dent in our division chances. Nobody else played Dallas as well as the Avs did this season. With that said, I know it's a five point hole for us with less than two weeks left. But that hole can be filled plenty quick. Trust the Avs. Trust Bednar. Trust Georgiev. That's all I ask.

This game was on ESPN, and the Avs wll be back on that same network on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild--the final meeting of the season between these two longtime division rivals. After that, a three day hiatus, followed by a home meeting against the Winnipeg Jets (Saturday), a stop at Sin City (Sunday), and finally, the regular season finale at home against the Edmonton Oilers. When it comes to the Central Division, we're not dead yet, fellow Avs fans. We are not dead yet.

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