DENVER — It was a heavyweight clash without heavyweight hockey.
The Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild, Stanley Cup contenders who are rarely easy to play against or break down, opened their titanic Western Conference semifinal playoff series by trading chances and goals like it was an All-Star Game. Except for the intensity, atmosphere and stakes.
The National Hockey League’s best team during the regular season, the Avalanche scored the first three goals, still managed to trail by one late in the second period, then scored five of the final six to beat the Wild 9-6 in Game 1 Sunday in Colorado.
It was unexpected and spectacularly entertaining for everyone except the goalies and coaches.
We hardly knew what to make of it. Except this best-of-seven actually may live up to the hype that began about the time the Wild traded for Quinn Hughes in December to announce themselves as a serious threat to the Avalanche.
But it was Colorado’s Norris Trophy defenceman, Cale Makar, who made the difference in Game 1 by returning from the medical room to score twice in his team’s four-goal third period.
“That’s Cale Makar doing Cale Makar things,” Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “I wasn’t that concerned; I know he’s tough and he was going to be back at some point.”
After Minnesota missile Marcus Foligno launched Makar into orbit with a hit on the forecheck less than three minutes into the game, the player regarded as the best defenceman in hockey went straight to the bench, then the dressing room, and was not seen again until the second period.
The Wild saw too much of Makar in the third when he twice zipped shots past rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt from the right-wing circle.
“Just a weird game,” Makar said. “Coming from the last few games we played (in the first round against the Los Angeles Kings), it was really tight out there. Today, it just felt a little bit more open and sometimes that can be a tendency to kind of lack a little bit on the defensive side. I don’t think we’re going to see that again. Just probably a one-off. But I liked that we were able to stick with it and find a way to win, obviously, in a unique way.”
Makar said of Foligno’s legal hit: “I obviously saw it coming. I tried to absorb it. Just a weird kind of fall there. I tried to kind of back out of it as I saw he was kind of coming at me. I knew he was trying to separate myself from the puck. It’s a very common thing; you’re going to see it every single night. Just unfortunately caught me in a weird spot like that. I think I’ve got to find different ways to go back on pucks.”
Makar’s return was a game-changer. Had he not — had he been seriously enough injured to miss the rest of the game and others — it could have decided the series.
“You’ve got to give him a lot of credit, right?” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “Comes back not feeling great after the injury in the first. Gets sorted out and taken care of, but comes back and has a great finish to the game.
“But I’ll say, there’s not too many guys this time of year that aren’t playing hurt and digging in and playing through that stuff. That’s what makes the playoffs great. That’s what’s expected; it’s not a one-off. The bulk of guys on every team that are still playing and will continue to play are going to play hurt and injured. I think they all deserve the credit. Tonight, it was Cale. Tomorrow night, it’ll be somebody else.”
Game 2 is here Tuesday. And Game 1 is probably a one-off because the slack defending, missed coverages, poor plays with the puck, were so uncharacteristic for the Avalanche and Wild, who have in common that they do not often beat themselves.
The Avalanche led the NHL in team defence during the regular season, then allowed only five goals in their four-game sweep of Los Angeles in the playoffs’ first round.
The Wild hit that total on Sunday when Foligno scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 16:55 of the second period, nearly disfiguring both Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood and the net as Minnesota’s heavy forward crashed into the post while giving Minnesota its only lead, 5-4.
As for his team’s defensive play, although the Wild were ventilated in Round 1 by the Dallas Stars’ power play, they yielded only four five-on-five goals during a six-game win. The Wild dominated at even strength. The Avalanche scored seven five-on-five goals Sunday.
A power-play goal by Colorado’s Artturi Lehkonen offset Foligno’s shorty as the defensive powerhouses skated into the third period tied 5-5.
But Makar scored from a poorly-defended faceoff play at 3:21 of the third period, and Nazem Kadri beat Wallstedt cleanly from 35 feet on a breakaway to make it 7-5 at 5:43.
And after Matt Boldy’s bounce pass to the front of the net caromed in off teammate Mats Zuccarello to bring the Wild back within a goal with 3:59 remaining, Makar scored again 65 seconds later, creating room to get his shot past Boldy and through Artturi Lehkonen’s screen.
Nathan MacKinnon, who let the puck get past him on Foligno’s breakaway, scored into an empty net with 2:08 to go.
Eight different Avalanche players scored and 13 skaters finished with at least one point. MacKinnon had a goal and two assists and was plus-three. Devon Toews, Makar’s defence partner, had four points and was plus-four.
Hughes led the Wild with a goal and two assists. Minnesota’s offensive stars, Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov, finished with only a single assist each. The Wild played without top centre Joel Eriksson Ek and key defenceman Jonas Brodin, both injured.
“Listen, that was a crazy game,” Landeskog said, and not in an admiring way. “Let’s just call it for what it is. But I think we did a good job on the bench, in the room, talking about what we needed to focus on, settling down when we needed to when they kind of had momentum. We’ll enjoy this one tonight, and then tomorrow we’ll sort out what we can do better.”
Both teams did enough to lose.
“It’s not that we weren’t emotionally engaged in the game and physically engaged in the game, because I think we were,” Bednar explained. “But not enough on the defensive side. We were on the offensive side. The forecheck looked good (and) we did some good things. But like when it came to the defending, I feel like we forgot a little bit just how hard we need to work to be good defensively. We were easy in some areas and loose on some gaps and late a few times, and they play hard offensively.”
The Avalanche hadn’t played in a week. They had plenty of rest and practise for the series. The Wild, however, eliminated the Stars on Thursday night and didn’t know until late Friday that they’d be flying the next day to Denver to start on Sunday.
But Minnesota coach John Hynes bristled at the idea that his team could have used a practice to prepare for the Avalanche.
“I don’t think our practice has anything to do with it,” he said. “I think it’s all about wrapping your head around the series and understanding the differences between Colorado and Dallas. I think if we went out there for a 30- to 35-minute practice, it wouldn’t have made one ounce of difference on this. It’s about the mindset and understanding the differences between the two series.”