Avalanche Game 81 Recap: All or Nothing

Game #80 is in the past. On to Game #81.

With a first round matchup with the Winnipeg Jets now official, the Colorado Avalanche now had to go for home ice in that series. Entering this game, the Avs needed to win out and the Jets needed to lose one point in the standings. For Game #81, it was our last road game of the regular season, and it was a trip to Sin City against the defending Cup Champions, the Vegas Golden Knights. And regarding goaltending, Alexandar Georgiev was in the net against Adin Hill. So far, it was already much better than Game #80. The Avs were actually shooting the puck, which seemed to be a novel concept in recent games.

Out of nowhere, Ross Colton delivered a shot that somehow found the back of the net. I have no idea how it got in, but it got in, and the Avs took a 1-0 lead at 7:26. Even better, Cale Makar made it 2-0 three minutes later, and at the very end of the period, the Avs received a power play. It stretched into the 2nd period, and it was killed off. Vegas received their first power play, but we killed if off. Later on, Tomas Hertl scored, and I went, "Of course it's Hertl." Now, the announcers tried to make a case for goalie interference, but there wasn't much. Yet Jared Bednar challenged, and I started panicking. Yes, there was contact. I didn't think it was enough to warrant an actual GI call. So I was expecting the goal to count and for Vegas to go on the PP. Yet the call was made: goaltender interference, no goal!

Hertl couldn't believe it. Honestly, I couldn't either. But the game remained 2-0, and it became 3-0 thanks to Mikko Rantanen. It was amazing. It was 3-0 after 40 minutes, and Georgiev was lights out as usual. Certain victory was inevitable...until it wasn't.

Early in the third, Ivan Barbashev broke the shutout bid. Then Josh Manson dedided to interfere with Hertl, his second penalty of the game (Delay of Game was the first, but that was part of matching minors called). Just as the PP was about to end, William Carlson made it a one goal game. Avs fans were starting to sense the other shoe dropping, but I felt that we would get that fourth goal and ice it. Then our defensemen became lazy, and Karlsson tied it up. To make matters worse, Manson decided to commit high sticking with 12 seconds left in regulation. Seriously?

So after I and other Avs fans are basically cursing Manson's name, we do manage to make it to overtime and get a point. We still had over 100 seconds of Vegas PP time to deal with, and it did look like we had a chance to kill it off, but then Hertl got his goal back. Oh boy.

I spent over an hour seething over this. I meant what I said in my Game 80 recap: no Stanley Cup quest is easy. But we shouldn't make things harder than they should be. I'm not talking about the blown lead, that happens; we've come back from big deficits this season. I'm talking about how we blew it. Georgiev being left hanging by his teammates again, and Josh Manson being an undisciplined idiot. Even worse, fake fans are unfairly picking on Georgiev, when the people we should be mad at are the defensemen--especially Manson.

The only thing that kept us alive in the chase for home ice in our upcoming series was reaching OT. Unfortunately, we lost a point, and that's the last point we can lose. Thanks to the OT loss, the Jets can't even reach OT in either of their final two games. We have to win our finale and Winnipeg has to lose both of their remaining games in regulation. The Jets' final two games are at home against the Kraken (Tuesday) and Canucks (Thursday). As for the Avs, our 82nd and last game of the regular season is a home game against the Edmonton Oilers, and that will take place on Thursday.

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