Blues v. Avalanche – MacKinnon and Donskoi Power Avs

#4 St. Louis Blues v. #1 Colorado Avalanche – Game 2
Colorado Leads Series 1-0

The Colorado Avalanche and the St. Louis Blues took to the ice in game two of their first round matchup on Wednesday and after losing to Colorado in game one, the Blues were looking to even the series at one game a piece before the series shifts to Enterprise Center and the Avalanche looked to go up 2-0 on home ice this postseason. Let’s jump in.

At just :32 seconds into the game, the Avalanche showed that they were more than ready to take it to the Blues. Ryan Graves would rip a shot from the point that would be deflected by Joonas Donskoi to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead in the first period. The Avs weren’t messing around and early on in the game it seemed like they were just in another class than their opponent. With under two minutes remaining in the first, superstar center Nathan MacKinnon showed why he’s considered by some to be a top 2 player in the NHL. He drove toward the net, made a few opposing players look silly and sniped the puck past the goalie for 2-0 lead in the game.

We now enter the second period where the Blues finally began to show a little life when they got a nice timely goal from Sammy Blais. Blais banged the puck off the goalies pads with a quick shot and cut the Avalanche’s lead to 2-1 towards the end of the second period. This series was living up to all the hype and more.

Joonas Donskoi would strike again in the third period when he would redirect a Nathan MacKinnon blast to give the Avalanche a 3-1 lead in the third period. The Avalanche again appeared as if they were on the way to winning game two and the rest of the third would be a formality. The Blues finally capitalized again when they were given a five minute power-play. The Blues would make it 3-2 and cut the Avalanche’s lead in half about mid-way through the third. The goal was courtesy of Brayden Schenn. Side note, Philipp Grubauber has been amazing in this series and I look forward to seeing him play more in these playoffs.

What’s that? Another Avs goal? And it was scored by Nathan MacKinnon? Yes and Yes. Mackinnon rocketed a shot from the point that eluded Jordan Binnington to make it 4-2 Avalanche. Just SECONDS later, Mike Hoffman would score for the Blues to make it a 4-3 game. The Blues were not going away quietly.

The Avalanche would end up putting five on the board with the last goal coming on an empty net tally from Brandon Saad. With that 5-3 win, the Avs are full steam episode.