COLORADO AVALANCHE WIN, FORCE GAME 7 VS SHARKS

The Colorado Avalanche won Game 6 in overtime, thereby forcing a Game 7 in San Jose.

The Colorado Avalanche won the biggest game of the year at home at Pepsi Center! They beat the (hated) San Jose Sharks in overtime, score 4-3. And now they’ll be headed to San Jose for an electrifying Game 7!

The Avalanche were the better team for the majority of the game. The only reason the Sharks stayed in the game was because of some fortuitous bounces.

The coaching staff ran with the 7-11 approach — seven defensemen and 11 forwards. The added defenseman was Patrik Nemeth, who played 9:54 of ice time and recorded two hits, a blocked shot, and a takeaway. The scratched forward was Sven Andrighetto. Heart-and-soul forward Matt Calvert continues to be injured by that nasty Brent Burns hit. (To be clear, “nasty” is applied to both Burns and the hit.)

So, I’m going to give props where props are due. Jared Bednar promoted forward Tyson Jost to the second line. That was the correct move because as soon as the young forward had equally talented players on his line, he scored a rebound goal in the last game.

Ain’t nothing rebound about the goal he scored in tonight’s game:

That is the kind of talent and skill I saw in Jost at the lower levels, and that is the kind of talent and skill I’m excited about seeing for the Colorado Avalanche.

Speaking of talent and skill, while it was a sniper shot from Jost that earned that goal, linemate J.T. Compher did some important work to set up that tally. He also recorded two of his own tallies.

The first came late in the second period after that stinky Marc-Edouard Vlasic tied the game. Compher channeled all of his trash can energy:

onto the ice tonight. And he was rewarded with not one but two big goals.

Here’s the first, to put the Avalanche up 2-1 in the second:

And here’s the second goal, which put the Avs up 3-2 after that uncool Sasquatch tied the game late in the second:

Man, if Compher scored either or both of those goals with the stick he used to annihilate the trash can, beware all arena trash cans. He’ll have to start smashing them for superstitious reasons.

Unfortunately, the hockey fortunes wanted to tease the Colorado Avalanche. That very unpleasant pickle, Vlasic, scored late in the third to force overtime.

Well, you know who’s been working hard but been especially snake-bitten? The best captain in the NHL, Gabriel Landeskog. Turns out our Viking captain is tired of being overworked and underpaid by the hockey gods. He decided to create his own Valhalla.

That’s a metaphorical way of saying our Swedish-born captain scored the game-winning goal in overtime:

For those of you keeping track at home, the Avalanche are now 3-0 in overtimes in the playoffs. Remember when they were, like, 12-1 in the regular season? Yeah, me neither.

Instead, what I remember is our cap spoke, and the hockey gods listened:

The action now returns to San Jose for Game 7. While it’s not official yet, the announced game time has been 7 pm MT. What is official is that the Colorado Avalanche have the momentum.

And that’s everything in the playoffs.