The only passengers Saturday night were the thousands of Avalanche fans buckled into Ball Arena seats for the ride Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen were taking them on.
MacKinnon scored twice and Rantanen registered four points, including his 49th goal, to lead the Avs to a 5-2 win in their last regular-season meeting with the Stars.
With 10:51 remaining after Dallas had seemingly closed the gap to 3-2, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar challenged for goalie interference in a high-stakes roll of the dice. Losing would mean a Dallas power play in a one-goal game. But Bednar won, and the lead stuck.
The Avalanche (45-24-6) desperately needed a win to keep its division title hopes alive on the heels of a regulation loss to first-place Minnesota on Wednesday. Entering the night, the Avs trailed Dallas by two points and Minnesota by three. It could have been the night the division got almost out of reach, with the Wild facing Vegas. But MacKinnon and company delivered, never trailing in an impressive bounce-back days after Bednar called out "passengers" on the team for poor effort early in the Minnesota game. The Wild lost to the Golden Knights, meaning Colorado controls its own destiny now with the highest point percentage in the Central.
"I thought we had a really good team effort tonight," Bednar said. "Start to finish, too. Full 60. Competitive, detailed, very disciplined with the puck. … We've been a resilient group."
The Stars arrived in Denver late Friday night for the second game of a back-to-back, making the matchup more alluring for an Avalanche roster that had something to prove in the first period especially.
Bednar never questioned the effort of MacKinnon or Rantanen, but both were held without a point against Minnesota. Both were rewarded for their effort this time. Nearing the nine-minute mark, MacKinnon chased down a loose puck that was wandering toward the blue line, extending his stick to keep Colorado's offensive zone time alive. MacKinnon turned and flung the puck into the corner, where Rantanen chased it down in traffic and snaked a brilliant pass back through the slot.
"Saw (MacKinnon) open on the weak side," Rantanen said. "I didn't know if it got through everybody or not."
The Stars had forgotten about MacKinnon. There he was at the backdoor for a clean one-timer.
"Attention to detail from our group on that shift — multiple layers of it," Bednar said. "There's an offensive zone forecheck to a collapse. Nate jumps back above it, knocks it down. Then he gets back above it. Guys are turning. We don't like what we're seeing. … He punches it back down below the goal line. We get another good forecheck from (Evan) Rodrigues and Rantanen.
"The pass was elite."
MacKinnon has 34 goals and 97 points with seven games remaining. Rantanen is up to 92 points after assisting three goals, including both of MacKinnon's, and scoring a bar-down empty-netter from his own blue line.
"Got lucky on that," Rantanen said. He also added that an empty-net goal "doesn't count" in his pursuit of 50 this season.
Their first goal was as close to a work of art as they have created together this season. The second was sheer opportunism and puck luck. Leading 2-1 with a power play late in the second, J.T. Compher won a faceoff, and Rantanen tapped it back to MacKinnon. His shot redirected off a Dallas stick, and the puck fluttered past Jake Oettinger with 11 seconds left in the period.
Their high-octane production was complemented by a penalty killer who played a crucial role in multiple moments. Logan O'Connor was on the receiving end of a shove from Ryan Suter into the crease that prompted Bednar's risky challenge. And he helped supply the lead with one of the most impressive goals of his career, taking on star defenseman Miro Heiskanen one-on-one and navigating around him.
"I saw he had a bit of a bad gap, because of how the neutral zone lined up. So I decided to push it and try to use that gap to my advantage," O'Connor said.
Not only did he best an elite blueliner, but he scored five-hole on Oettinger, a top-tier goaltender.
Bo Byram told O'Connor right after the goal that there was no way the five-hole aim was intentional.
"I actually was (trying)," O'Connor insisted. "Bo didn't believe me afterward, but I was looking five-hole."
Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.
No comments:
Post a Comment