The level of officiating in Tuesday night’s Game 2 Avalanche victory at Ball Arena was concerning. And it’s part of the reason why things went completely off the rails for long spurts in regulation.
Putting the broken pane of glass aside, the officials dictated far too much of the second period. There was no rhythm.
One sequence in particular was at the forefront of this. And it came in the second period.
When the Avs got their third power play of the evening, a fumbled puck over the stick of Cale Makar led to a breakaway going the other way. Kings forward Quinton Byfield, to his credit, got a step on Makar and didn’t let up. He got a shot off just as Makar tapped him, making contact mostly with the stick and not the hand.
That’s what it looked like. That’s what it was. Just a minor tap.
“I don’t think Cale’s is a penalty. He doesn’t get his hands. So I don’t think it’s a penalty, but it breaks up a breakaway,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “You’ve got to be real sharp to catch it or not catch it.”
The officials pointed directly to center ice, signaling a penalty shot. Byfield came in and got absolutely robbed by Scott Wedgewood, who used his glove to keep it out while falling back onto the ice.
“Great save by Wedge. Keeps us in a time game,” Bednar said.
Then, of course, came the broken pane of glass. You can read more about it here.
When that was all cleaned up — a delay that lasted just under 20 minutes — the Avs continued 1:52 of a power play. But the officials got back into the game, calling a second straight terrible call.
This time, it was Nathan MacKinnon, who dropped the puck back upon entering the zone, and was called for interference on a play that, yet again, didn’t involve much contact. It was a brutal call that, for the second time in this game, ended an Avs power play early.
“I don’t think MacKinnon’s is a penalty either,” Bednar said, “He ladders it out, he’s taking a route and tries to get outside Laferriere and runs into him. I don’t think it’s a penalty. He has nowhere else to go. Laferriere is on the inside, he takes the outside route, and he’s stepping out to play our guy and runs into him. I don’t know how you avoid that.”
The Avs were 0-for-3 on the PP, which included those two shortened chances. The Kings were 1-for-5 on the man advantage, as Artemi Panarin again scored the lone tally for the road team.
“All our other penalties were penalties, and we deserved them,” Bednar said. “We’ve got to be more disciplined. We take a penalty we didn’t need to take late in the third, and it cost us a goal against. We’ve got to be careful. The competitiveness is there, the second effort is there and then we’re reaching in on a couple. We’ve got to just clean up a few of those decisions.”
10 Takeaways
1. Nic Roy’s overtime winner was one of the more rewarding plays of the series. I can’t think of a better player to get that goal, in that moment, than him. Roy has been excellent since the drop of the puck in Game 1.
2. That was precisely the type of goal he excels at. He’s a rangy, strong forward who does a great job of finding his space in tight areas around the crease. It’s similar to what the Avs are used to having in Valeri Nichushkin.
It’s Roy’s second OT winner of his career, and both of those goals came from right in front.
3. I thought Nazem Kadri was mostly quiet in this one. But great players make big plays when they’re most needed. And Roy’s goal doesn’t happen without Kadri’s beautiful pass along the boards.
The Kings were getting in front of everything. They were doing a great job of blocking shots, stopping passes, and breaking up plays. That’s exactly what they tried to do when Kadri sifted the puck on his backhand to open ice for Josh Manson. His shot was blocked in front, Roy collected the rebound, and the rest was history.
4. There’s something special about the way the Avs are winning these two games. Is it their preference? Probably not. But they have a sense of pride in showing that, despite how defensively strong the Kings are, the Avalanche are still the team that gave up the fewest number of goals, along with being the best offensive team in the regular season.
5. That entire sequence involving the Mikey Anderson hit on Martin Necas was pretty frustrating from an Avalanche standpoint. At first glance, it looked like a clear shot to the head, but the replay did show that the principal point wasn’t the head, and Anderson kept his elbow down. Still, I very much disliked that Colorado came out of all that with a penalty kill.
Brett Kulak obviously made an effort to go after Anderson, and everyone got involved. I understand it was deemed a legal hit, but in playoff hockey, you either take both guys or neither. And if you take both guys, you should probably even out the penalties.
6. Necas missed several shifts after getting pulled by the concussion spotter. He was back on his feet after the initial hit, albeit with a bloody nose. It made sense that they got him checked out. But he did return, and played the rest of the game.
I did enjoy seeing him put a little more into finishing a check late in the first. One of the Kings’ defenders was in the corner and had just released possession of the puck before Necas went into the corner and hit him. It just so happened to be Anderson. Necas had an opportunity to get him back and he did.
7. Speaking of redemption, Logan O’Connor also used that first period as a great opportunity to go after Brandt Clarke any chance he got. Clarke hit O’Connor with an elbow in Game 1 and didn’t get a penalty for it. As is usually the case in hockey, O’Connor took a number and saved it for the next game.
8. I enjoyed the pass from Necas that set up the Gabe Landeskog goal. Necas is still shaking off the playoff woes of years past and this might not be the best series for that, just given the lack of goals.
9. I wrote in my postgame about the Avs passing up shots. Necas is part of that. They found their rhythm as the game went on but they passed up far too much early.
10. The more they play together, the more I’m seeing just how valuable the Sam Malinski and Brett Kulak pairing are.
