On the strength of a 4-3 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center Wednesday night, the Avalanche entered the all-star break in what would be the Western Conference’s first of two wild-card spots — one point ahead of the Nashville Predators and two up on the Minnesota Wild.
It’s likely that neither Cam Newton nor Peyton Manning stayed up to watch the nationally televised Avalanche comeback unfold on NBC Sports, but those who tuned in and stuck with it considered it a surprising turnaround after Colorado trailed 2-0 and also 3-2.
Calvin Pickard — temporarily the Avs’ No. 1 goaltender while Semyon Varlamov was tied up in the Denver District Court trial for his former girlfriend’s suit against him — was resilient too, finishing with 35 saves.
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“This was an emotional one,” said Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog, who scored twice against the Kings. “Some games aren’t and some games are, and this definitely was an emotional one, especially coming off of a tough loss (to San Jose). We wanted to bounce back.
“Every time you go into a break like this, the last one is always fresh on everybody’s mind and you want to build off of that and feel good about yourself during the break.”
So at least one mission has been accomplished in the wake of Colorado’s second consecutive slow start.
Although the Avalanche has played three more games than the Wild, Colorado essentially has played its way back into control of its destiny, and it also doesn’t hurt that it likely would win any regulation and overtime win (ROW) tiebreaker.
Barring late injury replacements, Matt Duchene will be the only Avalanche player on the Central Division team at the all-star three-on-three tournament in Nashville Sunday. For the rest, it will be time off before a Monday afternoon practice and a Tuesday night home game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Many Avalanche players scattered from Los Angeles, while others returned to Denver on the team’s chartered flight. Roy testified at the Varlamov trial on Thursday.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @tfrei
