How Avs Pivoted Energy to Earn Victory Over Sabres

You never want an injury to be the reason a game’s momentum shifts, but for the Avalanche, that’s exactly what Scott Wedgewood getting hurt did.

The team was flat in the first period, and it cost them. The Buffalo Sabres were up 3-0 after the first 30 minutes, and the Avs didn’t respond until five minutes left in the middle frame. Cale Makar’s first goal got the Avs into the game, but the battle began in the third period.

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“It sucks that we had to wait for something to happen like that, and you want to answer right away and do something. But I thought halfway through that second period, we started playing,” Jonathan Drouin said after Friday’s practice. “And obviously, that Wedgewood injury made it go up a higher level. We just played well, and someone goes down, your goalie especially, you want to get that win for him, and Blackwood did a hell of a job coming in.”

The play surrounding Wedgewood’s injury was controversial, and Buffalo scored a goal in the mix of it. That boosted the Avs’ energy but did not send them over the edge emotionally.

“The game is getting chippy, that’s just how it goes sometimes. You got to elevate at those times, and for us, it is what it is,” Cale Makar said. “For myself, we can’t control anything the refs do. So why worry about it, why waste energy on it? It’s in the past now and hopefully just move on from it.”

Head coach Jared Bednar was upset with the way the officials handled the play and expressed that after the game. His team rallied rather than gave up and dug in to win 6-5 in overtime.

“I just think it helps boost confidence. We discussed our crowd reaction, how important that is. They got behind us big time and got really loud and helped energize our team,” Bednar said. “Our guys got mad and got super determined after that happened. It goes to show you what you can accomplish and that you’re never out of it if everyone’s digging in with that type of emotion and passion to go play.”

Drouin and Devon Toews said the home crowd affected the level of their play and helped fire the team up to earn the two points. An injury is not an excuse to step up, but the Avs can use the circumstances of that comeback win as motivation moving forward. And they carried that energy into Friday’s practice.