All good things must come to an end.
The Avalanche’s win streak has come to an end at 10 games, as the Minnesota Wild took down Colorado in a shootout on Friday afternoon by a score of 3-2. Naturally, it took more than 60 minutes to decide a winner in a game between the two hottest teams in the NHL.
Here are five takeaways from Colorado’s 3-2 shootout loss.
They weren’t going to shut out the opposition forever. Kirill Kaprizov’s first goal in the second period ended Colorado’s shutout streak at 212:42, the longest scoreless streak in franchise history by nearly 20 full minutes. An impressive streak for the Avalanche, who have allowed fewer goals than every other team in the NHL.
Last season, the first player to 40 points was Martin Necas, who was playing in Carolina at the time. This season, it’s Nathan MacKinnon, who became the first player in the NHL to hit that number in the first period with his 19th goal of the season.
Gabriel Landeskog was rewarded for what was likely his best shift of the season. In the third period, Jared Bednar put Landeskog on the top line with MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen, and the captain was rewarded for his hard work, tying the game up in a battle in front of the net. The goal came just seconds after he nearly scored on a 2-on-1. It’s also entirely possible the captain was bleeding when he scored, as he took a stick to the face just seconds before the puck went in the net. The joy on his teammates’ faces should tell you all you need to know about what Landeskog means to this team. For at least one shift, he looked like the Landeskog we knew from a few years ago.
It’s no secret that the Avalanche have not been great in overtime this year, but, interestingly, Necas did not touch the ice in extra time. He did not have a good game, turning the puck over multiple times, and that might be one of the reasons why he stayed on the bench. However, he did score Colorado’s only goal in the shootout.
Sam Girard has not looked the same since coming back from injury. For someone whose game is built around his skating and puck movement, Girard has looked a little slow. Sam Malinski may have passed him on the depth chart, as the 27-year-old Minnesota native was one of the three Avalanche defensemen who saw the ice in overtime.