ST. PAUL, Minn. — Trying to diagnose the true ceiling of this Colorado Avalanche team has been a season-long challenge, but anyone who wants to believe this club can win 16 playoff games in the spring should point to a sequence Thursday night in the second period.
It was also the turning point of a 6-1 victory against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. Given the context, this one was both rather important and one of the most impressive performances of the season for Colorado.
The Wild, on a night when the Avs’ work without the puck was often championship-quality, had a Grade-A opportunity to even the score. Mackenzie Blackwood stoned Joel Eriksson Ek on a clean look, one of several great saves the Colorado netminder made in this one.
Shortly after that, Nathan MacKinnon left a drop pass for Mikko Rantanen, who scored a filthy goal through a screen to give the visitors a 3-1 advantage with seven minutes remaining in the period.
It was a massive turn of events in a game that helped the Avalanche move within three points of the Wild for second place in the Central Division.
“I really liked a lot of things in our game tonight,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It started with the attention to detail in our game. We went over some things this morning that were kind of hurting us over the last three games. I thought the guys did a nice job implementing what we talked about and correcting some of those mistakes.”
Pull back and look at the big picture, though. That sequence is why the Avalanche can win the Stanley Cup. This version of the Avs has been banged up all year. They still haven’t had their ideal lineup together for a full game.
But this team has found a goaltender who, when he’s on, will cover up the inevitable mistakes in an otherwise stout defensive performance. And the Avs still have the world-class firepower to shoot any opponent out of a game in demoralizing fashion.
Blackwood finished with 24 saves. He had only made seven more than halfway through the game, but a few were stellar.
“I wish they were all like that,” Bednar said of the defensive effort. “You need your goalie to make a save. You’re going to have breakdowns. When we had them, Blackwood was great.”
Both clubs had plenty of adversity to deal with. The Avalanche, in Game No. 43, finally found a team that had a worse availability situation. Minnesota was missing MVP candidate Kirill Kaprizov and its top three defensemen.
Colorado’s season-long injury virus claimed a new victim. While Jonathan Drouin (upper body) returned, Samuel Girard missed this one with an upper-body ailment of his own, so the Avs were still missing five of their preferred 20 guys to dress, plus depth defenseman Oliver Kylington.
The Avs were also playing for the second time in as many nights and coming off a surprising loss to the 32nd-place Chicago Blackhawks.
“They’re banged up over there,” Manson said. “But it’s nice to come into a back-to-back and find that energy, find that burst — especially in the third period.”
Logan O’Connor put the Avs on the board first with his fifth of the season at 3:46 of the opening period. Josh Manson caught the Wild in the middle of a line change and turned a Minnesota clearing attempt into a pass to O’Connor behind the defense.
Ross Colton made it 2-0 with one of the easiest goals of his career. Declan Chisholm had the puck behind the Minnesota net and attempted a pass he’s made thousands of times in his career to start the Wild’s breakout. Chisholm flubbed the pass. It went right to Colton, who was standing at the edge of the Minnesota crease, and he had the puck behind Filip Gustavsson before the goalie could react at 16:52.
The Avs didn’t get out of the opening period with a two-goal lead because of a late breakdown. Old pal Yakov Trenin sent the puck to Frederick Gaudreau near the left faceoff circle. Gaudreau dragged three Avs defenders with him toward the right circle, but the puck was knocked right to Zach Bogosian, and the defensemen snapped one past Blackwood from the high slot with 1:33 left in the period.
Colorado poured it on with three goals in the first half of the third period. Parker Kelly, Artturi Lehkonen (shorthanded after a great end-to-end rush by Manson) and MacKinnon all added insurance tallies.
The Avs haven’t blown many teams out this season, but this one turned into a laugher after Blackwood’s big save and Rantanen’s snipe gave them some breathing room.
“That’s the momentum of hockey,” Blackwood said. “Sometimes you’re on the wrong end of it. Sometimes you’re on the right end of it. When you’re on the right end of it, it’s a lot of fun.”
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