Nathan MacKinnon usually comes up clutch for the Colorado Avalanche. Wednesday night against the Minnesota Wild, he did the same thing. Except, this was one of the sweeter goals you’ll ever see.
On the top-left area above the left dot, MacKinnon took the puck from a pass by Cale Makar, and with an impossible angle, took a shot at the net anyway. It ended up going far side (to Jesper Wallstedt’s left) and into the net.
Defenseman Jake Middleton tried to get in position to block the shot, and kudos to him for trying and putting his body in a vulnerable spot, but MacKinnon was able to rip the pass right past the defender.
During several of the postgame interviews, Avs players were asked where this win ranks among them all in their respective career. My answer would be: Well, it’s the next one, so this is right up there.
Of course, the bigger highlight would be if they find their way to the Stanley Cup Final and get the win there. Then, the answer to the question above would be obvious.
The Avalanche have fought through some extremely difficult times during this particular series. They fell to a 3-0 deficit in the first period of Wednesday night’s game, but their fight continued and they ended up pulling out the win.
To me, the goal by MacKinnon was one of the cooler and maybe improbable goals I’ve seen in a while. That’s not taking anything from the other goals we’ve seen. I just loved how MacKinnon was able to get the puck into the net at the particular angle.
There is still a lot of hockey left to be played. Maybe we will see something even crazier from the Avs’ best offensive player in the next series, which will be against either the Anaheim Ducks or Vegas Golden Knights.
But for now, we get to look back at this insane series against the Wild, and enjoy it while we can.
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