Colorado Avalanche Players Reach Milestones Against Vegas

The Colorado Avalanche saw some players reach milestones in the 3-0 win against the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Colorado Avalanche beat the Vegas Golden Knights in a thrilling home game that saw two players hit career milestones.

The first was a heart-warmer. Career AHLer Andrew Agozzino, who has bounced around mostly in the Avs minor league system, scored his first NHL goal. On Twitter, in my excitement, I announced it was Agozzino’s first NHL game. However, it was his 11th.

Who cares? He got an NHL goal, and that is something he will remember his whole life.

The goal came in the second period with the Avalanche already up 1-0. The play was cycling in the Vegas end. Jared Bednar had some wonky lines running that night, so Agozzino was with Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon.

Indeed, the two All Stars assisted Agozzino in scoring. MacKinnon dished it to Landeskog. The Knights had left Andrew wide open, so Landeskog saucer passed it over to him. Agozzino finished the play with a beautiful one-timer:

Funnily enough, the rookie was the oldest player on the ice for the Avs. In addition to MacKinnon (23) and Landeskog (26), Samuel Girard (20) and Tyson Barrie (27) were also out there. But, hey, it doesn’t matter at what age you score your first.

Some of Andrew’s teammates were up from Loveland to watch him in his 11th NHL game:

We have the Czech-Mates (like I wasn’t going to make that pun) Pavel Francouz and Martin Kaut as well as Sergei Boikov, who’s inexplicably alone — or without any Eagles around him.

Just a week ago, we’d have been begging Pavel Francouz to stay in Denver and take over the Avalanche net. However, Semyon Varlamov has seemingly returned to form. In fact, he recorded his 25th career shutout against the Avs. By the way, shame on the Pepsi Center staff for putting the number of shutouts on Pepsi Vision during the game! He was the fifth Russian-born goalie to record 25 shutouts.

Anyway, captain Gabriel Landeskog, in assisting on Andrew Agozzino’s goal, reached his own milestone. He recorded his 400th NHL point. He’s only the second player from the 2011 NHL draft class to reach that milestone — the first was Wunderkind Nikita Kucherov, whom the Lightning chose in the second round. He reached the milestone earlier this year.

Our captain is the best captain:

Anyway, guess who scored the game-winning goal. Everyone’s favorite 20-year-old “bust,” Tyson Jost. His goal came in the first period, and it was an absolute gem.

It was all about the hard work in Jost’s goal. He worked to free it along the boards. As it squirted out to the slot, he chased it down and corralled the puck. With no fewer than three Knights players attempting to defend him, he spun around and shot the puck right past goalie Malcolm Subban:

I’m just shaking my head wondering why Avs fans would want to give up on this kid. That’s as pure a goal scorers goal as they come, and it was preceded by pure hard work.

Anyway, that was Jost’s second game-winning goal of the season, which is a career high for him. He also effected an award-winning celly:

It wasn’t quite Matt Duchene’s monkey off the back, but it was pretty good. And you love to see that confidence from the kid — that’s what indicates he’s in the zone.

The Colorado Avalanche won the game 3-0. I would be remiss in not mentioning the third goal scorer. He didn’t reach a milestone, but he is rocking a mullet that none of us can get over:

Since you can’t see the actual mullet, look in front of Varly’s bacon enjoyment for the full effect:

It takes a confident man to rock the mullet, and we’re here for it.

The Colorado Avalanche don’t have an easy road ahead of them. However, they love to play in the underdog position these days. So, one point out of playoff contention… maybe we’ve got the Western Conference right where we want them.