When it comes to hockey, things can turn in any direction at any given point until the clock hits all zeros. In a game that felt over pretty quickly, the Colorado Avalanche were able to prove doubters wrong on Sunday afternoon, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins by a final score of 5-4, in overtime.
When it headed to overtime, I wasn’t too nervous because the Avalanche were down 4-0 and clawed their way back. It was their 25th comeback of the season. The Penguins had the Avs’ number for quite a while. It was one of those “I’ll probably just shut this game off and go about my day” games. I’m glad I didn’t. The Penguins are in a rebuilding stage, so falling 4-0 to them at any point was concerning to me.
That shouldn’t happen. They should have been up 4-0 in the first period. Even Nathan MacKinnon’s home point streak felt difficult to get—and he finished with a goal and two assists. The moral of this story is to never count out the Colorado Avalanche. It's not realistic to expect them to win every game from here on out for the rest of the regular season, but there's no need to hit the panic button right now.
They have teams where they want them. Well, I am sure that they would want those pesky Dallas Stars further back in the standings, but at the end of Sunday’s results, despite the Stars beating the Coyotes 4-2, the Avalanche are still in first place in the Central.
On April 7th, Dallas comes to town for a game that could have some serious implications in the standings, depending on how things go the rest of the day. It’s going to be a very tight race to the No. 1 seed as we head closer and closer to the 2023-24 NHL postseason.
Maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to crush the Stars’ hearts on that day, in yet another comeback victory.