Colorado Avalanche: Incredible Goals against the Blackhawks 2017-2018
The Colorado Avalanche had 17 goals against the Chicago Blackhawks last season. Here are four of the best goals from that series.
The Colorado Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 during the 2017-18 season, which was a glorious thing. It was especially glorious when the Avalanche scored goals against the Hawks in Pepsi Center because then we didn’t have to hear all those invader fans cheering.
But it was glorious to watch them score goals in United Center, too, because the home fans didn’t like that too much.
Ah, it was just glorious to watch the Avs score 17 goals to the Blackhawks’ 6. And that discrepancy led to Colorado beating Chicago 3-1 in the series — technically, it was 3-0-1. Here are the exact results.
- Oct. 28, 2017 at Colorado: Colorado 6, Chicago 3
- Mar 6, 2018 at Chicago: Chicago 2, Colorado 1 (OT)
- Mar 20, 2018, at Chicago: Colorado 5, Chicago 1
- Mar 30, 2018, at Colorado: Colorado 5, Chicago 0
That shutout to end the series was lovely. The penultimate game was great, too, since it was the game that eliminated Chicago from playoff contention.
So, we have 17 goals from which to choose as the most incredible from last season. Major players such as Nathan MacKinnon (3 goals, 4 assists), Mikko Rantanen (3 goals, 3 assists) and Tyson Barrie (2 goals, 3 assists) were major factors.
Well, let’s look at what some of the top goals were for when the Colorado Avalanche played against their Central Division rival Chicago Blackhawks
Rantanen’s Opening Tally
The Colorado Avalanche faced the Chicago Blackhawks for the first time that season late in October. It ended up being a 6-3 victory for the Avs.
Well, game-winners are always note-worthy, and we’ll get to this one’s in a moment. However, there’s something to be said for the player who opens the scoring on a team. In this case, that player was Mikko Rantanen.
Rantanen scores his second goal of the season early in the first period. The goal comes at even strength. It starts behind the Hawks goal with Nathan MacKinnon bowling over defenseman Jan Rutta to gain possession. He tosses the puck to the front of the net, where Rantanen is driving the net.
Rantanen slams home the one-timer:
The score put the Colorado Avalanche up 1-0. The goal was one of two Rantanen scored and one of three total points.
MacKinnon’s Game-Winning Goal
As noted, the Colorado Avalanche’s opening game against the Blackhawks was a 6-3 win. However, it should never have been as close as that. Close to the midway mark of the second period, the Avalanche were up 5-0. We all thought we were looking at a blowout.
Well, instead we got a scare of the 48-Point Lost Season. After scoring five straight, Colorado allowed the Blackhawks to score two in the second period.
Eventually they scored a third goal in the third period. That made the fourth goal of the game the winner. That was a Nathan MacKinnon goal, which occurred early in the second.
MacKinnon takes possession of the puck in his own zone and drives toward the Hawks zone. He passes the puck to Gabriel Landeskog, who takes the shot. Anton Forsberg makes the save. However, Landeskog regains possession and bats it across the slot to MacKinnon.
MacKinnon buries the puck past Forsberg:
The goal put the Avalanche up 4-0, and it stood as the eventual game winner.
MacKinnon’s Power Play Tally
In their second matchup of the season, which didn’t come until March, the Colorado Avalanche weren’t so lucky against the Chicago Blackhawks. They ended up losing to the Hawks 2-1 in overtime. Nathan MacKinnon scored the lone goal.
Chicago went up 1-0 in the first period. However, late in the second period, Hawks skater Connor Murphy went to the box for holding Alexander Kerfoot. Naturally, that put the Avs on the power play.
The Avs get set up in the Hawks zone. Tyson Barrie cycles in low and passes the puck across the ice to MacKinnon. Nathan unleashes a laser of a shot that flies past goalie J-F Berube:
Like I said, that was the Avalanche’s only goal. However, it did force the game to go to overtime, which earned Colorado a valuable point.
Rantanen’s Playoffs Spoiler
After not seeing the Blackhawks in four months, the Colorado Avalanche played them three times in March. The second game came a little past the midway point, on March 20.
Going into the game, the Blackhawks were 30-34-9. As noted, this 5-1 game eliminated Chicago from playoff contention for the first time since 2001-08. (Ding-dong the witch is dead.)
Chicago knew they were staving off elimination. So the Blackhawks went on the board first on a goal by Brent Seabrook. The Avalanche answered early in the second with a goal from Alexander Kerfoot. The tally that proved to be the game-winner — and playoffs spoiler — came just under three minutes later.
Rantanen’s partner in crime is the same in this game as it was in the whole series — MacKinnon. He collects the puck from Tyson Barrie — who showcases some terrific moves to get the puck into the Hawks zone — near the playoff circle. He dishes the puck to Rantanen.
Mikko lifts the puck over Anton Forsberg’s glove hand and into the net:
Barrie collected a secondary assist on this power play. However, in addition to walking the puck into the zone, he also created a hullabaloo in front of Forsberg, which helped Rantanen. This was some good work by our T-Brat.
Next. Best Goals vs Minnesota. dark
Colorado Avalanche players such as Alexander Kerfoot and Sven Andrighetto also had noteworthy goals against the Chicago Blackhawks. However, we’ll save those for their own posts.
For today, we’ll leave this as the Rants and Nate Dawg show.