Mercifully, the 3-2-2 homestand has now concluded.
For the seventh and final game of the home stand the Colorado Avalanche hosted the Philadelphia Flyers in a terrible 7-3 loss on a night when the 2001 Stanley Cup team was honored. The game was tied heading into the third period but Colorado lost control of the game to end in their fourth defeat on home ice over the last two weeks.
Parker Kelly, Victor Olofsson and Cale Makar each scored for Colorado. Philadelphia got a hat trick from Owen Tippett and two goals scored by Matevi Michkov.
The Game
This game unfolded similar to the Ducks game where the Avalanche crafted a lot of shots but had nothing to show for it after the first period. Two unsuccessful power plays, including one just 30 seconds into the game, helped Colorado generate those 17 shots but a lot were from the perimeter.
It was the young guns from Philadelphia who got on the board. First from Owen Tippett who gathered his own rebound after he shot it off Sam Malinski’s knee and beat Mackenzie Blackwood. Philadelphia added another near the end of the period on their own man advantage from Denver Barkey. A 2-0 deficit at the end of the first frame wasn’t ideal.
Colorado got back into the game in the middle of the second period when the fourth line created chaos in the offensive zone. Parker Kelly found a rebound and a wide open net as Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson was too far forward in the crease.
At the midpoint of the period there was an explosion of goals within two minutes of game time, two from Colorado sandwiched around one from Philadelphia. Victor Oloffson was the beneficiary of a pass from Nathan MacKinnon and buried the puck to tie the game. The fourth line gave a goal back to Bobby Brink right after on some scrambled coverage. And then Cale Makar answered back with a goal of his own to even the score at 3-3, which is how the period would end.
The Avalanche decided to make a comeback more difficult when they gave up two early third period goals to Philadelphia. First Owen Tippett got his second goal of the evening on a rush and snipe. Then a minute later Matevi Michkov got his own goal on a tip in front.
Colorado got a prime chance on their power play after Zakhar Bardakov was tripped up and went hard into the end boards. However, the Avalanche spent more time in the defensive zone and didn’t get much momentum off of it. It went from bad to worse when on yet another power play Tippett picked off a cross-ice pass and scored the hat trick, which would be the eighth shorthanded goal the Avalanche have given up this season.
Now down 6-3 the Avalanche pulled Blackwood with about five minutes to go but just ended up giving Michkov an empty net goal to arrive at the 7-3 final in the ugliest loss of the season for Colorado.
Takeaways
The defending was definitely lax at times tonight but this is the second straight start Blackwood has given up at least five goals. The smart bet would be Scott Wedgewood sees a lot of starts on the upcoming Canadian road trip.
Nathan MacKinnon generated two assists but just one shot on goal in over 26 minutes of ice time. Considering Colorado received four power plays that’s just not enough. At this time of the year it’s easy to get bored but in a lot of these recent losses there hasn’t been a ton of contributions from the top players.
Joel Kiviranta returned to the lineup but Ross Colton is now out with a lower-body injury. Understandably everyone is highly anticipating the return of Devon Toews and Gabe Landeskog to ease their troubles but the game of hockey is a war of attrition, especially in the playoffs.
Upcoming
A trip up north to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, January 25th at 11:30 a.m.
Category: General Sports
