Barrie Does Dallas: Colorado Avalanche Beat Dallas Stars

Remember last season when the Colorado Avalanche were called the Cardiac Kids? They had a tendency to make late comebacks work for them.

Well, as the Avs Nation has noticed this season, practically nothing has worked for the team. They got such a slow start that put them in a bad position. They’ve gotten steadily better, but it just seemed as if they couldn’t get the momentum rolling in their direction for the tail end of 2014.

Well, this is 2015, and the Colorado Avalanche are going retro. They’re occasionally playing the same kind of sloppy hockey they played in the Joe Sacco years. And they’re coming on like gangbusters at the last minute — or seconds in many cases — to steal hockey games they didn’t deserve.

And it’s working for them.

Case in point, the game against the Dallas Stars. The Stars dominated the Avalanche through two full periods of hockey. They won faceoffs. They dominated puck possession. The outshot the Avs two to one. They scored a power play goal, and they were disciplined in not taking penalties. And, at the end of two periods, they were up 2-0.

Well, about halfway through the third period the Cardiac Kids took over. The ice started tilting toward the Dallas Stars goal. The Avalanche were getting shots on goal. They blew a power play, but center Ryan O’Reilly finally got them on the scoreboard. It was just their 10th shot of the game, but it didn’t matter. The Avs had cut the lead in half.

That looked to be the best they were going to do, especially when defenseman Zach Redmond took his second penalty of the night late in the third period. However, the Avs penalty kill has been excellent all season, and they survived the Stars’ attack long enough to get to Colorado Avalanche hockey.

Colorado Avalanche hockey is that last two minutes in a game when head coach Patrick Roy pulls the goalie and the players come on like gangbusters. It’s two minutes, same as a power play. Yet the Avalanche manage the 6-on-5 so much better than the 5-on-4. No one knows why, except that it’s probably the desperation.