BIG comeback win against the Bruins, down 3-1 at one point, they come roaring back with five unanswered goals. In the battle between two elite top lines, to my surprise, it was the Avalanche's trio that came out on top. The eventual GWG had Rantanen (who had a monster night) deke his way past Bergeron AND Marchand and create an odd-man rush, then dished to Nate on the right side for the goal. Pastrnak was busy covering Landeskog on the left. And it's not like that line sucked, Pastrnak still managed to get a goal on the power play, but at least last night it was the 92-29-96 line who looked outright dominant.
The top line even managed to make Chara look kinda bad near the beginning. MacKinnon came speeding in behind the net and forced Chara to turn it over, where it landed right on Mikko's stick. He dished to Landeskog who was inexplicably uncovered in the high slot, he had about a good second to snipe it past Halak.
Ironically Avs couldn't score on the empty net but then got a power play goal after Bergeron took a hooking penalty against MacKinnon with seconds remaining.
Here's the shocking, stunning stat: The Avs actually held a big advantage on faceoffs. Whaaaaaa...???
Mark Barberio saw action for the first time in weeks, and unlike his previous two outings, played like a guy who did not want to see the press box again anytime soon. Nikita Zadorov played the fewest minutes of any player last night, and was promptly benched after taking a not-so-smart interference penalty early in the game.
Louie Debrusk's kid gave the Avs all they could handle, scoring two goals, including one on the breakaway after a terrible MacKinnon turnover. Apparently he lost his stick and was late getting back, which is why he was so far ahead once it started going the other way.
Hopefully Chara's injury isn't too bad, but it didn't look good. Went to hit Carl Soderberg and his knee buckled.