Colorado Avalanche Win Chippy Game in Detroit

The Colorado Avalanche earned an important two points on the road when they defeated the Detroit Red Wings.

The Colorado Avalanche-Detroit Red Wings rivalry is not dead — not completely anyway.

As I observed in a previous post, maybe it’s just instinctual for the two teams to hate each other.

Well, I’m not ashamed to say that the Red Wings had a slight edge on the Avalanche when it comes to the rough stuff. It’s true that newbie Av Ian Cole handed Tyler Bertuzzi — yes, of that family — his, er, hat in a rousing round of fisticuffs:

However, Bertuzzi was butt-hurt enough to enact these shenanigans a little while later:

Seriously, yet another Bertuzzi sucker punching a defenseless Avs player. Clearly it runs in the family.

Big Z the Destroyer, Nikita Zadorov, doesn’t look pleased. He’s ready to take on Justin Abdelkader. The latter wisely declines.

Not long after the Cole-Bertuzzi fight, defenseman Patrik Nemeth checks Dylan Larkin hard in answer to the latter’s cheap shot on Nathan MacKinnon. Unfortunately, Anthony Mantha takes exception, and this happens:

Yeah, Nemeth doesn’t account himself well there.

Overall, it was a physical game:

But, in the end, the Avalanche hit the Wings where it hurts most — in the scorecard. Not only did Colorado win the game, they shut out the Red Wings.

It was a satisfying game.

Let’s look at how it played out.

Secondary Scoring

The Colorado Avalanche did not get any secondary scoring. They scored two goals, and both were from the top line.

The first goal came when the Avalanche were on the power play thanks to Jonathan Ericsson holding Colin Wilson. It was a beautiful goal, a set tic-tac-toe play:

The scorer is Nathan MacKinnon with assists to Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog.

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The second goal came late in the third period. The Avalanche had withstood all the shenanigans Detroit had to bring — welcome back to the clutch-and-grab era. So, the Wings did what any team does when down 1-0 late in the third — they pulled their goalie.

And captain Gabriel Landeskog scored the empty-netter. Assists went to MacKinnon and Rantanen. So, it was all the top line, all the time.

The rest of the team did look good. Tyson Jost was very good on the forecheck, and his backhander was just wide of a sure goal on a breakaway. Mark was one post away from a goal. Samuel Girard jumped into the play in his best Tyson Barrie imitation.

Secondary scoring didn’t happen in this game, but I have confidence it’s there for when the Avs need it. Tonight, the Fire Line was enough.

Special Teams

Well, the Colorado Avalanche power play was 100% tonight, so that’s incredible. Of course, they only ever got one power play even though the Detroit Red Wings brought out their best goon game. The only other penalties Wings player were called for were fighting — and Mantha didn’t even get an instigator for forcing Nemeth to fight him.

To be fair, the officials did swallow their whistles on both sides. Colorado only got called twice. Their penalty kill was as good as their power play — 100%.

That power play, though… straight fire. After tonight’s game, it’s now at 32.2%. That’s good for #1 in the NHL by three percentage points. As of right now, they also have the best power play in franchise history.

Here’s Mikko Rantanen’s response when he was told that factoid:

Metaphorically, I feel we’re all Rantanen right now — delighted, but slightly disbelieving.

When you go to NHL.com, you see the Colorado Avalanche on the front page thanks to and Avs goalie shutout. You see five Avs players up for the All Star captaincy in the Central Division. You see the Chicago Blackhawks losing.

I’m glad it’s the late 1990s again. I was so young back then. Life seemed much simpler.

No, really, I’m starting to believe the Colorado Avalanche are a good team. Not flash-in-the-pan good — the kind of good we’ve been hoping and praying for about a decade now.

It’s scary. But let’s enjoy this ride.