{"id":344404,"date":"2025-12-08T07:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T07:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/344404\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T07:50:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T07:50:22","slug":"instant-reaction-avs-survive-weekend-back-to-back-series-with-3-2-win-over-philadelphia-flyers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/344404\/","title":{"rendered":"INSTANT REACTION: Avs survive weekend back-to-back series with 3-2 win over Philadelphia Flyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the second game of a back to back, the Avs<\/a> found more legs to get another game in the win column to win 3-2 over the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, their third game in four days.<\/p>\n

The first period, the Avalanche dominated, holding the Flyers to just three shots on net.<\/p>\n

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The bad news: Philly scored off one of those shots, thanks to a Sean Couturier deflection.<\/p>\n

The good news: The Avs scored two goal<\/a> to offset it and win the period. Brent Burns<\/a> gets a long shot clean through Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson. Brock Nelson<\/a> gets the second one, a gritty whack on the power play<\/a> to not only get the power play on the board, but to give the Avs the lead heading into the second period.<\/p>\n

The second, Valeri Nichushkin<\/a> is the hero with a rip from the right faceoff dot, courtesy of a beautiful cross-ice pass from Devon Toews<\/a>. The Avs hold the two-goal lead for a few minutes, but Travis Konecny<\/a> catches a few guys out of position, including Mackenzie Blackwood<\/a>, to bring it back within one.<\/p>\n

The third period saw the Avs draw into their usual back half of a back-to-back sloppiness. Trevor Zegras draws a penalty on a breakaway and earns himself a penalty shot, but Blackwood stood tall. With much sloppiness to follow from the Avs, they hold steady when Ersson gets pulled for the 6-on-5, and earn the 3-2 win.<\/p>\n

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Power play = good (for now)<\/p>\n

Everyone, you can take a deep breath. The power play has converted!<\/p>\n

It was messy, sure, but from the jump on their first power play, they looked dangerous. They were moving, they were getting pucks on net, and with a good chance from Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> that rebounds off Samuel Ersson, Brock Nelson whacks at it and it finds the netting.<\/p>\n

The power play has been a recurring issue that could be very close to becoming a deciding factor in future games if the Avs can\u2019t find some sort of rhythm for consistency. Being 26th across the league in the man-advantage for a team that\u2019s been dominantly good in almost every other facet of the game seems unacceptable.<\/p>\n

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But it worked tonight, somehow, so I\u2019m taking that as a win.<\/p>\n

The last back-to-back of 2025<\/p>\n

And after you\u2019ve possibly taken your deep breath for the power play, everyone can sigh in relief. The Colorado Avalanche are done with back-to-backs for the year!<\/p>\n

In the last month and a half, the Avs have endured five back-to-back series\u2019 in their schedule. In two of those back-to-backs, the Avs came away with only one win. The other three, including this one, the Avs swept.<\/p>\n

Earning four out of four points in three series\u2019 is impressive for a team that notoriously loses their legs in the last of two consecutive games.<\/p>\n

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Not just that, but the Avs looked really dominant in the first two periods of this game, so to only concede one bad period is a heavy win for this team.<\/p>\n

Avs postgame pod<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the second game of a back to back, the Avs found more legs to get another game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[2122,1772,1034,144,1543,1468,5,1123,509,517,4,562,1467,56,5205,506,5360,1340,5812,731,4185,413,3922],"class_list":{"0":"post-344404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-avs","9":"tag-brent-burns","10":"tag-brock-nelson","11":"tag-colorado-avalanche","12":"tag-devon-toews","13":"tag-flyers","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-mackenzie-blackwood","16":"tag-matvei-michkov","17":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-pennsylvania","20":"tag-philadelphia","21":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","22":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","23":"tag-power-play","24":"tag-samuel-ersson","25":"tag-samuel-girard","26":"tag-sean-couturier","27":"tag-travis-konecny","28":"tag-trevor-zegras","29":"tag-usa","30":"tag-valeri-nichushkin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115682857737906625","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}