Colorado Avalanche Keep Playoff Hopes Alive by Beating Wild

The Colorado Avalanche may not be in the best position in the standings, but at least they kept their playoff dream alive with a win over the Wild.

The Colorado Avalanche’s playoff hopes are on life support, but they’re still alive. Yeah, I know, I wrote them off over a week ago, but that’s why you play all the games.

It was a Tyson Tuesday kind of game. Both Tysons — Barrie and Jost — were integral to the win.

Defenseman Tyson Barrie got the scoring started. Indeed, he looked like he was just carrying over his magic from the game against the New Jersey Devils at Pepsi Center. Midway through the first period, Barrie capitalized on a superhuman effort from Mikko Rantanen to keep possession of the puck. It briefly became loose, and Barrie fired it in:

Funny, I don’t remember Tyson Barrie being a big slapshot guy in previous years. It seems like he was more about crashing the net. Anyway, the slapshot has been working for him as he scored his 10th goal of the season.

The goal put the Avs up 1-0.

Center Tyson Jost, well, he took a bonehead penalty when he tried to broom the puck with a broken stick. Luckily the Avs killed the penalty, and Jost came out with fire in his belly, going on a breakaway and taking a shot on net right out of the box.

Thank goodness, Jared Bednar didn’t get punitive with the young Jost and bench him because of the bad penalty. So, midway through the second period, after Zach Parise had tied the game, Jost was on the ice. And he did this:

That is one beautiful breakaway goal. He’s got such skill.

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This is also why you can’t give up on a young  player like Tyson Jost. As color analyst Peter McNab pointed out, Nathan MacKinnon didn’t come into his own until last year, his fifth season in the NHL. He had higher numbers than Jost, for sure, but Jost has now matched last season’s totals in points (22) and surpassed his total in game-winning goals (three).

And we have to love the kid because he loves scoring on the (hated) Minnesota Wild. He started out his NHL career with a goal against Minny. He scored two more last season, and now this is his fourth. He has a total of 23 goals, so 17% of his tallies have come against Minnesota.

During his post-game presser with Lauren Gardner — who, unfortunately, only has one more game with us — gave us some insight into why he might have such luck against Devan Dubnyk:

“I shoot on Dubnyk in the summer, so I was actually thinking 5-hole because he knows some of my moves. But I went high glove.”

I guess they train together in the offseason.

Ian Cole‘s empty-netter with just under two minutes to go sealed the deal for the Colorado Avalanche. They won the game 3-1.

As Tyson Jost — and likely all the players — pointed out, it’s playoff-style hockey from here on in. That seems to be the way the team likes it.

The Colorado Avalanche’s next game will be just as important and probably even more difficult. They’ll be facing the Stars in Dallas on Thursday. Hey, it’s March Madness, hockey fans.