Colorado Avalanche Get 1,000th Win against Anaheim Ducks

The Colorado Avalanche earned their 1,000th win since moving to Denver in a wild game against the Anaheim Ducks. Here’s to 1,000 more.

The Colorado Avalanche have 1,000 wins. After 22 complete seasons, and 20 games into the new season, the Avalanche have 1,000 wins.

They completed this milestone in a completely weird and modern way for the current inception of the team. They started out by going down a goal in the first period. Sven Andrighetto tied the game early in the second just to see Ryan Getzlaf break the tie just over a minute later.

Ondrej Kase scored a minute later, and it was beginning to look like the game was going to run away from the Avs. Indeed, goalie Philipp Grubauer, in his second-straight start, was looking pedestrian at best.

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Then a funny thing happened — the top line took over. Nathan MacKinnon scored a power play goal late in the second to make the score 3-2. Our captain, Gabriel Landeskog, scored midway through the third. What followed was just over eight minutes of heart-stopping hockey including a late penalty on Alexander Kerfoot.

Did I mention the referees went all 90’s-style and swallowed their whistles to all the hooking and slashing, especially perpetrated by the Ducks? (Though Andrighetto did get away with a wicked crosscheck.) No, well that’s because they didn’t keep the calls even-handed like back in the day.

In any case, the game went to overtime, and I, for one, was delighted that the Avalanche would at least get a point.

Now, you might remember that I recently wrote a post about how the Avs need to work on OT. If not, I’ll conveniently link it here. Now, Colorado didn’t practice in between the time I wrote the post and they played the game. However, the game did go to overtime, and I was able to see many of the strategies playing out — almost as if the coaching staff know hockey. (Poke at myself.)

Anyway, our modern-day hero, the Finnish Wonder, scored with a scant 2 seconds left in overtime. The Avalanche were on a power play, which is weird because the refs  called Pontus Aberg for slashing at the 4:45 mark. Why bother after the tripping penalties that went un-called for most of the game?

Well, I won’t say the call resulted in the Colorado Avalanche win, but Mikko Rantanen‘s overtime tally most certainly resulted in this:

1,000 wins for the Colorado Avalanche. The team had 897 wins in the regular season and 102 in the playoffs. Yesterday’s victory brought the tally to 1,000.

Naturally, so many of those wins can in the golden years when the team first relocated from Quebec. I mean, the first year the team had 47 wins followed by a 49-win season. Of course, they also won 16 playoff games that first season, followed by five. (Stupid Oilers.)

Last night marked win #10 on the season.

So, 22 years plus 1 1/2 months to get to victory 1,000 — only five other teams have managed the same or better in the same amount of time — Detroit 1146, Pittsburgh 1044, New Jersey 1020, Dallas 1009, San Jose 1002. We’re all shocked and amazed the (hated) Minnesota Wild are not in that list.

The Colorado Avalanche are on the upswing. Last season they tacked on another 43 regular-season victories and two playoff wins. Let’s hope for the same or better this year.

Side note: Let’s also hope Nemeth apologizes to Jost for elbowing him in the face during his celebration (see header picture).