The version of the Colorado Avalanche that can win the Stanley Cup this season returned Saturday night at Ball Arena.
Colorado played one of its best games in weeks, producing highlight-reel goals and relatively clean hockey without the puck in a 4-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes. Maybe the biggest reason for optimism was the Avalanche’s dominance in the second period, which has been the club’s boogeyman at times this year.
The Avs entered the night with a minus-four goals differential in the second, a far cry from their positive work over the course of the season in the first and last periods. Colorado struck three times in the period against Arizona, and all three tallies involved some excellent build-up play.
“Second period might have been our most complete period of the year,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “From the goaltender out, I just thought we had the detail. … That’s what it is supposed to look like.”
Valeri Nichushkin scored on a backhanded cross-ice pass from Nathan MacKinnon early in the period. It was a surgical sequence from the top line and defense pairing, with MacKinnon extending his point streak to 18 games. It’s the longest of his career and the longest in the NHL this season.
One of the issues recently for the Avs has been not enough offensive support for the top line, which has been fantastic. They got it Saturday night.
Josh Manson scored one of the best team-crafted goals of the season to make it 3-0. It started with goaltender Alexandar Georgiev waiting out a forechecker and igniting a rush with a deft outlet pass. It ended with Fredrik Olofsson finding Manson as the trailer for a bar-down wrist shot from near the top of the right circle.
Olofsson put the final touches on a near-perfect period with a tap-in goal after a beautiful no-look, backhand pass from Andrew Cogliano to give the Avs a 4-0 lead after 40 minutes.
One of the things that Bednar has stressed ad nauseam of late is attention to detail and playing within the team’s structure. He warned after the morning skate Saturday that Arizona had a young, fast, skilled group that came to Denver as one of the hottest teams in the NHL, and his Avs would need to check well.
The first period wasn’t a great one by Colorado’s standards, but it was void of the big mistakes and Grade A scoring chances that the Avs have been guilty of yielding over the past few weeks.
“I think everyone (checked), up and down our lineup,” said defenseman Bowen Byram, who opened the scoring in the first period. “There’s still mistakes that happen. It’s a game of mistakes. But I think the biggest thing is when someone made one, someone else was working hard enough to recover for them. That’s been a big part of our game the whole time I’ve been here.
“It was a lot of fun to play like that tonight when you have the puck and you’re driving play. It makes it a lot more fun than running around and defending in the D-zone.”
Then the second period became a fireworks show. It wasn’t just the pretty goals. Miles Wood crushed Arizona defenseman J.J. Moser with a huge hit as they both raced toward the boards for a loose puck.
Wood and Coyotes forward Lawson Crouse fought later in the period, but the Avs made sure the visitors derived no momentum from the donnybrook.
The Avs checked without the puck. They dazzled with it, particularly during a late second-period power play that had some of the prettiest passing sequences the group has produced all season. And Georgiev made a handful of tough saves look relatively easy.
Every NHL team spends months searching for the elusive 60-minute effort. This was pretty close to one for the Avalanche, and a reminder of why the ceiling for this group is a parade in June.
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