Colorado Avalanche: Highlights of JT Compher’s 2018-2019 Season

Colorado Avalanche forward JT Compher had a good 2018-19 season filled with some memorable highlights.

Colorado Avalanche forward J.T. Compher completed his second full season with the team last year, having split the 2016-17 season with the San Antonio Rampage.

Compher enjoyed a career year with Colorado, earning a career-best 16 goals and career-best 32 points. Unfortunately injury limited him to only 66 regular-season games with the Avs. He had four goals and two assists in 12 games during this year’s playoffs.

His season was good enough to earn him a four-year contract worth $3.5 annually with Colorado. He was a restricted free agent this summer.

Let’s look at some of the highlights of JT Compher’s season.

3 Game-Winning Goals

Compher recorded three game-winning goals this season. His first came against the Arizona Coyotes right after Thanksgiving. He scored two that night in a 5-1 victory over Arizona. We’ll get to that game-winner in a moment.

The second game-winning goal came in December against the Florida Panthers en route to a 5-2 Avs win. Here it is:

That’s a nice little tip-in of Gabriel Landeskog’s shot.

The final one came in his home town of Chicago. In fact, he recorded two goals and an assist to help the team to a 5-3 victory over the Blackhawks. Here’s the game-winner:

What a beautiful breakaway from JT. What skill!

2 Short-Handed Goals in 1 Game

So, getting back to that game-winning goal in Arizona. It deserves to be in its own section because it was, in fact, a short-handed goal. It wasn’t just any shortie, either — it was the second shortie Compher scored that game. Oh, the second he scored on the same power play.

Here’s the first shortie:

That’s nice work by Matt Nieto to get the puck into the Avalanche’s offensive zone. And then Compher unleashes a hard shot to beat goalie Antti Raanta.

Now, you’d think getting scored on during your own power play would inspire the Coyotes to tighten play up, at least for that power play. Luckily for Avs fans, it did not. Compher blocked a pass with his stick and chased down the errant puck to go on a breakaway:

Voilà, we have the second shortie of that power play, and the game-winning goal.

1 More Short-Handed Goals

Short-handed goals are cool when your team’s scoring them, and JT decided he liked scoring them. So, in addition to those two daggers he stuck into Arizona’s heart, he also scored one against the Winnipeg Jets.

Rudely enough, the game was on Valentine’s Day, and Colorado handed the Jets a 4-1 loss in their own barn. And here’s the special Valentine JT handed to the Jets’ power play:

I love how Compher is skating across have the length of the ice backwards, confident he’s going to get the puck. Then he just dekes Connor Hellebuyck for the Colorado Avalanche’s third goal of the game.

2-Goal Playoff Game

As noted above, JT Compher scored four goals in the 2019 playoffs. Well, two of those goals came in the same game, against the San Jose Sharks in Colorado. It was, in fact, Game 6 with the Avs facing elimination at home.

The first goal came midway through the second period with the score tied. Carl Soderberg cycled the puck and passed it to Compher, who fired off the one-timer:

That goal put Colorado up 2-1. Unfortunately, by the third period the score was tied again. So, Compher gave the team another goal. This time, Derick Brassard got him the puck. He switched it to his backhand and scored:

In that game, Compher also earned the primary assist on Tyson Jost’s goal:

Pretty much, this game was all-Compher, all the time… at least until overtime when the captain took over.

Gordie Howe Hat Trick

Now, any player can go around scoring goals and earning assists. However, it takes a special kind of player who’s also fierce enough to earn a Gordie Howe Hat Trick — a goal, an assist, and a fight. He did just so against the St. Louis Blues.

The first part of the the GHHT was the assist:

That goal by Sven Andrighetto tied to game with the division-rival Blues.

The second part of the GHHT for Compher was the fight. He dropped the gloves with Brayden Schenn. Interestingly enough, this was Compher’s first NHL fight:

As you can see, the pair got tangled up right from the faceoff. You’re wrestling with an opponent that long, you might as well drop the gloves. I think JT accounted himself quite well for his first NHL fight.

At this point, when you’ve recorded an assist and a fight, you might as well score the goal to complete the Gordie Howe Hat Trick:

That was a nice little power play tally that tied the game. Alas, former Av Ryan O’Reilly stuck the dagger in our heart in overtime.

Anyway, JT Compher proved himself to be a valuable role player for the Colorado Avalanche. He’s going to be around four four more years — I’m excited to see what else he brings to the table.