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DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche, who dominated the NHL regular season, find themselves in a precarious position, facing a formidable Vegas Golden Knights team reinvigorated by a recent coaching change.
“I don’t think anyone expected this,” admitted Golden Knights defenseman Dylan Coghlan. “But we believed we could make it happen.”
In a surprising turn of events, Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev netted goals just 2:07 apart in the third period, leading the Golden Knights to a 3-1 victory over the Avalanche on Friday night. This win gives Vegas a commanding 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Final.
Eichel first brought the score level before assisting Barbashev on the decisive goal with 8:38 left on the clock. Barbashev later secured the win with an empty-net goal with 1:03 remaining, overturning the Avalanche’s initial 1-0 advantage and leaving the home crowd in disbelief.
With two victories at Ball Arena, the Golden Knights have placed the top-seeded Avalanche in a difficult situation. Historically, since 1982, teams that have taken a 2-0 lead on the road in the conference finals have maintained a perfect 13-0 series record.
“They understand the situation,” said Vegas coach John Tortorella, who has watched his team go 17-4-1 since he took over on March 29. “I’m not sure where the series goes. I’m not sure where Game 3 goes. But I know I’m not going to have to worry about that, because they get it.”
Carter Hart had another stellar performance, stopping 29 shots. He made 36 saves in a 4-2 win on Wednesday.
Colorado was cruising after Ross Colton opened the scoring in the first period. But things unraveled for the Avalanche in the third. Eichel lined a shot past Scott Wedgewood for his first goal in 11 games to get Vegas on the board.
“I haven’t scored in a million days,” he cracked.
The Golden Knights then took advantage of a miscue — Devon Toews and Brock Nelson struggled to clear the puck along the boards in the Avalanche end — as Eichel sent a pass to Barbashev, who rang in a shot off the post.
This was the fourth third-period comeback by the Golden Knights in this postseason, the most in a single playoffs in team history, according to NHL Stats.
“Just resiliency,” Hart said. “That’s the key word for our group here — we’ve just stuck in games and just grinded it out, and just battled. Resiliency, that’s a term that describes our group really well. We’re never out of the fight, and we’re always grinding in games.”
Game 3 is Sunday night in Las Vegas. The Avalanche are hoping to have star defenseman Cale Makar back in the lineup. He has missed the last two games because of an upper-body injury.
“There’s urgency to get him back since he got hurt,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “He’s doing all the work he can possibly do to get back as fast as he can.”
Before the Golden Knights’ rally, the Avalanche were 45-0-0 when leading after two periods in the regular season and playoffs combined.
“It stings for sure right now,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “But tomorrow we’ll wake up, have a meeting, fly to Vegas and regroup. That’s all you can do.”
Vegas struggled on the power play, going 0 of 4. The team also saw defenseman Brayden McNabb limp to the locker room in the first period soon after taking a check along the boards. He returned for the third period. The hard-checking Golden Knights finished with 32 hits and 16 blocked shots.
“We know how hard it is to win,” Eichel said. “A lot of that falls on playing hard defensively.”
Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson briefly left late in the second period after delivering a check on Barbashev and then ramming his face into the boards.
Wedgewood had 22 saves.
“We can’t ride the emotional roller-coaster like fans,” Bednar said. “If you lose Game 1, you’re getting swept. If you win Game 1, we’re sweeping them. That’s not reality. You have to deal with the task at hand and what’s to come. We’re not going to try and win four games the next night in Vegas. We’re going to try to win one game.”