Colorado Avalanche Resurrect their Playoff Dreams in Dallas

The Colorado Avalanche have miraculously reclaimed a playoff berth with a decisive 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars.

Two weeks ago to the day the Colorado Avalanche had a dreadful game in Dallas. They came away with a 4-0 loss, and I wrote that their playoff dreams had died.

I really believed that. They had been on a skid ever since their brief resurgence just before the trade deadline. Teams were overtaking them in the standings, and they seemed little inclined to address their lingering issues.

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Oh, and Ben Bishop had just broken our captain, Gabriel Landeskog, our All Star and third leading scorer on the team.

Well, here we are two weeks later. The Avalanche haven’t exactly gone on a tear, but going into tonight’s game, they were 3-2. They had finally managed to pull to within a couple points of that final wild card spot.

Tonight, they resurrected their playoff dreams. Goalie Philipp Grubauer played out of his mind, and the Avalanche got some crazy good secondary scoring in the form of two defensemen — Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie — and Big Old Carl, Carl Soderberg.

And with that win, they got one hook into a playoff spot. The Arizona Coyotes lost tonight, so the two teams are now tied for the final wild card berth. Here are the current tiebreakers:

1. Fewer number of games
2. Greater number of regulation and overtime wins
3. Record against each other
4. Greater goal differential

It takes getting all the way to number four, but the Avalanche have a +10 goal differential. Arizona is -10.

I’m going to be cautiously optimistic that the Colorado Avalanche can hold on to their playoff spot. They’ve got some important games ahead of them, including a home and home back-to-back with the Chicago Blackhawks, who are trying desperately to claw up to the final wild card berth. And they play the Coyotes next week.

Here are few more tidbits and thoughts from the game.

• Our optimism must be tempered by the fact that Mikko Rantanen left the game late in the third period after being checked and awkwardly falling into the dasher:

We can’t lose Rantanen, too, so healing thoughts his way. Also curse the Stars for breaking our players. That said, Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic did have some semi-bright news:

Fingers crossed.

• Grubauer made 44 saves out of 45 shots faced for a .978 save percentage. He appears to finally be gunning for the starter job.
• Our tiny, unemotional Samuel Girard quietly earned two assists tonight. He seemed to be slumping earlier in the season, but he’s back on his game now.
• Tyson Barrie’s game-winning goal was his 72nd. He’s now tied with the great Sandis Ozolinsh in the franchise record for goals scored by a defenseman.
• Tonight was Altitude TV’s Lauren Gardner’s last night reporting for the Colorado Avalanche. She reported that she was moving on in her career. She did amazing work for the Avs. I love that she never took herself seriously but really knew her hockey. We’ll all miss her.

We won’t get to root for our Colorado Avalanche until Saturday. However, tomorrow we all need to be Washington Capitals fans. They’re playing the (hated) Minnesota Wild. Washington needs to win in regulation to keep that most hated of teams from stealing our playoff berth.