AVS LIVE: Second-period analysis vs. Wild

Well, the Avs have the same margin of a lead they had after the first period, one goal. Yet, this game feels a bit more tenuous than it did after that first period, at least to me. Avs up 2-1, but some sloppy puck management nearly made it a tie game after 40 minutes.

Valeri Nichushkin gave the Avs a 2-0 lead, putting home the rebound of a Tyson Jost shot. But just when it was starting to feel like an easy-peezy night, the Avs started getting a bit too careless with the puck. They also were the victim of a bad call, I thought, when Cale Makar took a hard hit into the boards from Kyle Rau – but Colorado was the team that was put on the penalty kill from it.

J.T. Compher immediately dropped the gloves with Rau and body-slammed him into the ice, but Compher got the extra two minutes for being an instigator and the Wild scored on the PP. That broke a streak of 33 straight kills for the Avs.

After that, there were some close calls. Gabe Landeskog, Nazem Kadri and Logan O’Connor were guilty of some careless passing and Philipp Grubauer had to bail them out with some tough saves.

I think the Avs need to hammer some Wild players into the boards to make it clear that hit on Makar won’t stand further. Rau, in my opinion, should have been called for charging. On the other hand, the Avs have a one-goal lead to protect. This third period should be interesting.