The Colorado Avalanche hold a 2-1 series lead over the Minnesota Wild in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and despite their loss on Saturday night, they’ve got even more motivation heading into Monday night’s Game 4.
The devastating 5-1 loss was not something the Avs or Avs Faithful expected. But it was the lone goal for the Avalanche that resulted in a comment by Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt that could rejuvinate Colorado going forward.
Wallstedt talked to the media following the game and referred to the goal, scored by Nathan MacKinnon, as lucky.
Let me just say that calling it lucky is quite misleading. It was simply a mistake by defenseman Daemon Hunt, who pushed Gabriel Landeskog into the goalie, with the end result of the puck getting through for a goal by Nathan MacKinnon.
I guess you could call it lucky in the sense that the Wild could’ve shut Colorado out, but it was just a mistake by Hunt.
There is absolutely no question that the Avalanche need to play better. They weren’t good enough Saturday night. The positive of it all is that it was in Minnesota. If the Avalanche end up losing one or even two games at home, that could be a cause for concern. Right now, however, I feel pretty good because of Ball Arena having a great home crowd.
Now the Avalanche have a chance to make Wallstedt eat his words. Though they know that they have to play better without any extra motivation, the Wild goalie’s words could cause a spark for them heading into the rest of the series. It’s a dangerous game Wallstedt is playing by speaking those words.
The Avalanche are a lot better of a team than they put out on the ice Saturday night. Going forward, I expect them to fix the mistakes and put an end to this series once and for all in Game 5 on Wednesday.
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