It’s been a long time coming, or so it feels. The Colorado Avalanche have ended a frustrating losing streak with a 6-3 victory over the Washington Capitals.
Colorado went ahead and scored the first two goals of the game, but the Capitals capitalized (ha) and scored two-straight goals of their own, making the game 2-2. The good thing is that Colorado scored two goals in each period, including two empty-net goals to seal the game in the third period.
There were some questionable calls on Tuesday night, including a penalty on the Avalanche that should not have been a penalty, which resulted in a power-play goal for Alex Ovechkin. Much has been made of Ovechkin’s quest to climb the leaderboard in terms of power-play goals and while that one hurt, the important thing is that the Avs came away with the victory in the end.
Late in the game, I was not too pleased with the faceoffs, as it felt like the Capitals were on top of the puck a lot more than the Colorado Avalanche. Any time that happens, it’s always nerve-racking—especially when the defense struggles at times—which the Avs’ defense has been known for quite often this season.
Arturri Lehkonen had a phenomenal game against the Capitals, recording four points including two goals on five shots. Check out this high-IQ play in which Lehkonen got an assist!
It’s becoming very old seeing the team give away the puck in their zone, leading to goals. I’m not sure what the answer is to fix this, other than keep working in practice and getting better chemistry with the lines.
That being said, the Colorado Avalanche have one last game in this away slate, Thursday evening against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Then they head back home to face the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday and then the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday before heading to Detroit to take on the Red Wings next week Thursday.
Ideally, we would have gotten more than one win out of this stretch of away games. Now it’s time to get back on track. Their lack of success in this stretch could hurt them in the end but there is a lot of hockey left to be played.