It took one of the greatest comebacks in franchise history, but this Colorado Avalanche team is halfway to immortality.
Brett Kulak scored 3:52 into overtime on a pass from Martin Necas, and the Avs defeated the Minnesota Wild, 4-3, on Wednesday night at Ball Arena to win this series in five games. Colorado erased a three-goal deficit and will now await the winner of Anaheim-Vegas in the Western Conference Final.
Game 1 will be at Ball Arena. Fans were chanting “We want the Cup” as the two sides completed the handshake line.
Colorado trailed by two goals with less than 4 minutes remaining, and after a strong second period, had generated very little in the third.
It didn’t matter.
Jack Drury tipped a Devon Toews shot from the top of the zone past Jesper Wallstedt with 3:33 remaining. It was the second goal of the night from one of the Avs’ fourth-line guys.
Then, with the net empty at the other end of the ice, Nathan MacKinnon forced overtime with a ridiculous goal. He was standing still below the left faceoff circle and rifled a shot into a hole above Wallstedt’s right shoulder with 1:23 remaining in regulation. The window to score was the size of a teacup.
It was MacKinnon’s seventh goal of this postseason, in nine games, and the Ball Arena patrons exploded with the loudest roar of this postseason run to date.
Before the flurry to end regulation, the story of this game was Colorado’s terrible start. The Avs played their worst period in weeks to open this contest, and the Wild led 3-0 at the first intermission. Mackenzie Blackwood yielded three goals on 13 shots, and Avs coach Jared Bednar went back to Scott Wedgewood for the final two periods.
Arrturi Lehkonen and Sam Malinski did not play for the second consecutive game. Colorado’s injury issues also got worse in this game. Cale Makar left the game briefly in the third period, holding his right shoulder as he went down the tunnel. He returned to play, but Colorado’s superstar defenseman is clearly not operating at 100 percent. Some time off as the Avs await their opponent in the Western Conference Final should help.
Minnesota scored on the first shift of the game. Two nights after the Avs dominated the Wild’s second line, Minnesota head coach John Hynes moved Michael McCarron there, started them —and it paid off. The Wild put three shots on Mackenzie Blackwood in 34 seconds, the last a one-timer from Marcus Johansson to give the visitors the lead. Matt Boldy, who made little impact in the first four games of this season after a monster year, set Johansson up.
The Wild’s fourth line doubled the lead at 11:03. It was a simple rush play. Ex-Avs forward Nico Sturm carried the puck down the left wing, and Nick Foligno went to the net. He got behind the Avs’ pairing of Brent Burns and Brett Kulak, and was able to redirect Sturm’s pass through Blackwood.
That was Foligno’s first goal of the postseason. His second came a little less than five minutes later. Boldy clearly committed a holding penalty in the neutral zone on Martin Necas, but when it wasn’t called, the Wild regrouped and went to work.
Sturm carried the puck into the offensive zone, threw it on net and then made a great diving play to steer the rebound into Foligno’s path for a one-timer at 15:56 for a 3-0 advantage.
It could have been worse. McCarron directed the puck into the Avs net between the two Foligno goals during a delayed penalty, but it went off his glove and in so the goal was disallowed.
Parker Kelly scored for the second time in as many games to cut Minnesota’s lead to 3-1. He got a piece of a Brent Burns shot from the right point 11 minutes into the middle period. Kelly scored a career-high 21 goals in the regular season.
Colorado dominated possession of the puck in the second period, but Minnesota did well to protect their goaltender. The Avs had 33 shot attempts, but only nine reached Wallstedt.
The Wild continued to park the bus in the third period, and eventually the Avs broke through to force overtime.
