Meltdown: Avalanche Collapse, Drop Fifth Straight

Everything looked good for the Avalanche in the second period.

That changed in the blink of an eye.

Up two goals in the second period, the Avalanche melted down, playing undisciplined hockey and giving up three goals in 2:33 on the way to a fifth straight loss.

It’s the first time the Avalanche have lost three straight games since October of 2019.

Mikko Rantanen (big surprise) and Samuel Girard would score the goals for the Avalanche.

On the Canucks, Andrei Kuzmenko would score two goals. Brock Boeser was credited with the game winning goal, and J.T. Miller added one for himself into the empty net.

Things started okay for the Avalanche.

After Alexandar Georgiev made some nice saves at one end of the ice to keep the game tied, the Avalanche finally found a way to end their powerplay drought.

Mikko Rantanen, snubbed from the All-Star game just hours earlier, would send a seeing eye shot through traffic to give the Avalanche an early one goal lead on his team leading 26th goal of the year.

The second period started out well for the Avalanche as well.

A strong forecheck found the Avalanche coming out of a pile with the puck. The puck would eventually find its way to Samuel Girard at the left point. Girard sent a seeing eye wrist shot past Colin Delia, who was screened by his own defender, to give the Avalanche the two goal lead.

The worst lead in hockey.

A penalty by Devon Toews and some terrible luck would give the Canucks the opening they needed.

After a face-off win in the defensive zone, Andrew Cogliano sent a puck around the boards for a clear. Instead of ringing around, it hit the referee in the back.

The Canucks corralled the puck, and no less than ten seconds later, Kuzmenko found the back of the net for his first of the night.

After the goal, Cogliano must have said something to the referee. He was given a 10 minute misconduct penalty.

The collapse was just beginning.

Kuzmenko found himself in front of Georgiev 1:59 later, and out muscled Avalanche defenders to beat a sprawling Georgiev and tie the game.

Just 34 seconds later, a Devon Toews turnover ended up right on the Canucks stick, and after the puck rang around a bit in front of the net, Boeser would rip a shot past Georgiev to give the Canucks the lead.

A furious Georgiev (for good reason) would lose it, attempting to smash his stick on his own net.

The Avalanche made some pushes in the third period to tie the game, including a Darren Helm break, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

Miller added the empty net goal to send the Avalanche to their fifth straight loss, this one in embarrassing fashion.

The Avalanche now head to Edmonton looking to finally break this streak, but they’ll need to play a full 60 minutes to do so. The game on Saturday starts at 8 PM MST.