Dater: Avalanche Pull One out of the Fire

I gotta admit, I thought the Avs were going to blow this one. Oh man, I did not like their chances after Jordan Kyrou tied it up. Some of the people I text with would confirm this. Basically, I said to one friend a couple of times, “This is the one that got away. They somehow rescued defeat from the jaws of victory.”

It seemed like there were 18,000 people who were about to go into cardiac arrest after that Kyrou goal, then all through that agonizing wait between regulation and OT. Many previous Avs teams probably would have blown that game tonight, but not this one.

Just like that Game 2 against Nashville, when Connor Ingram was standing on his head and you didn’t think the Avs would ever put one by him, the Avs just kept coming. Finally – finally – they got one past Jordan Binnington at a little past eight minutes played in OT and the Avs are now up 1-0 on the Blues instead of already being in a hole and everyone coming out with their “Here we go again” Round 2 storylines.

Who had Josh Manson in the OT goal pool? I know I sure as heck didn’t. After the Avs pounded the posts and crossbars behind Binnington, after being robbed many other times by him, it was a just a little wrist shot from the top of the circles, with Gabe Landeskog setting a great screen, that won it. Hockey is a weird game.

So many things happened in this game, so I just kind of want to jump around with thoughts and observations on it: