DETROIT — As the clock wound down the final moments of Colorado’s farewell visit to Joe Louis, the center ice scoreboard offered a glimpse of the way the Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings once were.
As two teams bound to miss the Stanley Cup playoffs battled on the ice, a video of the infamous March 26, 1997 brawl at the Joe between these two teams got the crowd, and the memory banks, all fired up.
For Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon, it was a reminder of the way he wants it to be once again.
“It was a lot of fun watching the highlights of all those old Red Wings-Avalanche games on the scoreboard,” MacKinnon said. “I wish I had gotten to play more times in this building, but the one thing I took away from that is that we need to get this franchise back to that level.
“We want to be playing in huge games like that again.”
Well, that could be awhile. On both counts.
A third-period collapse saw the Avalanche, tied 1-1 early in the third period, fall easily to the Wings by a 5-1 count. It was the first time Detroit had won back-to-back games since Feb. 18-19, something the Avs have accomplished just once in their last 20 games.
Itap a good thing these two teams have a past to reflect back on, because the present is nothing to look at and the future, well, that at best can be described as uncertain.
Trailing 1-0 but playing a solid, disciplined road game, the Avs looked good when Tyson Barrie’s point shot hit MacKinnon in the leg and bounced into the Detroit net at 3:44 of the third period.
Then the Avs did what bad teams frequently do — they came apart like a house of sticks caught in a windstorm.
A clearing attempt by Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson hit Detroit forward Luke Glendening, and Johnson doubled down on his miscues by falling to the ice. Glendening broke into the Avs zone and fed Tomas Tatar for the eventual game-winner at 5:20.
Just 1:36 later, the Avs got caught on a bad line change and Tatar scored again.
Tallies by Dylan Larkin and Gus Nyquist completed the rout, preceded by Justin Abdelkader’s second-period goal.
“Itap just a frustrating loss again, because we have a chance to scratch and claw our way back into that and we stayed with our game the whole time up until that point,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “When we finally got that one I thought maybe we’d finally get a little traction. But then we had a couple of breakdowns that took the wind out of our sails.”
The Avalanche were held to one goal for the 16th time this season. They’ve also been shut out in a dozen other games.
“This is a really tough way to finish a season,” Avalanche forward John Mitchell said. “We’re a proud group of guys, and it isn’t fun to be in this situation.
“We just have to finish as well as we can and get ready for next season.”
COLORADO AT CHICAGO, 5 p.m., Sunday, ALT, 950 AM
Spotlight on: Blackhawks D Duncan Keith
Another example of how elite NHL defensemen can come from beyond the very top of the draft, Keith was the 54th overall choice in the 2002 draft, after his freshman season at Michigan State. He bolted for major junior’s Kelowna Rockets halfway through his sophomore year, then signed with the Blackhawks. His second season in the AHL was the NHL’s lockout year and he joined the Blackhawks for good in 2005.
