Avalanche face uphill climb as series slips to 2-0

Avalanche trail – Trailing 2-0 after two home losses and missing Cale Makar through an upper-body injury, the Colorado Avalanche head to Vegas for Game 3 with their margin for error getting thinner by the night. Logan O’Connor calls it a hole they have to dig out of, while Scot

DENVER — The feeling in the Avalanche room isn’t quiet. It’s the kind of tension that comes when you can see the standings, you can feel the momentum shifting, and you still have to show up for the next shift like it’s a fresh start.

Colorado is staring at a Western Conference Final that’s gotten heavy fast. After two home losses, the Avalanche are down 2-0 heading into Game 3 at Vegas on Sunday night. Cale Makar is missing again. sidelined all series by an upper-body injury. and through the first two games the Avalanche have managed just three goals total—numbers that don’t match what the league’s highest-scoring team has usually had at its best.

“We dug a hole,” forward Logan O’Connor said as Colorado prepared for Game 3. “It’s on us (to get out).”

The history around that hole doesn’t help. Since 1982, road teams that have gone 2-0 in the conference finals have a 13-0 series record, according to NHL Stats. But Colorado isn’t treating this like it’s a mathematical verdict. It has lived through a similar kind of start before.

Twenty-seven years ago, the Avalanche lost two straight at home to open the 1999 Western Conference semifinals against Detroit. They still rallied and won the series. Scott Wedgewood carried that memory into this moment.

“Uphill climb,” the Colorado goaltender said. “We have to flip the script on them, in their rink.”

Colorado believes that trip to Vegas can matter. In the regular season, the Avalanche won two games at T-Mobile Arena, including a 6-5 shootout victory. With the home-building advantage coming for Vegas, Parker Kelly pointed to the basics: weather the early storm, then settle into their game.

“Any building you go into, you can kind of use the crowd noise and advantage in your favor,” Kelly said. “Teams come out hard in their home building, so we’ve got to be able to weather the storm, push back and get to our game quick.”

Vegas has also shown it can survive when the odds look ruthless. In the 2021 second-round series against Colorado, the Golden Knights trailed 2-0, then won four straight. Nicolas Roy, who was with Vegas in that run, remembered exactly what it took to keep believing.

“We’ve just got to put on our work boots,” Roy said. “If you have a great effort next game and you win it, then obviously shift the momentum. We believe in this group.”

The Avalanche’s biggest question mark remains Makar. The star defenseman is up for the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman, but he’s been out all series with the upper-body injury. Coach Jared Bednar didn’t set a timetable, and his message was simple: readiness can’t be forced.

“He will tell us when he’s ready to play,” Bednar said. “No one can go into Cale’s body and feel what he’s feeling, so when he feels like he can do all the things he needs to be able to do on the ice to play, then he’s going to make the decision to play.”

Bednar also described the emotional temperature inside the room. It’s not only disappointment—it’s a mix of anger and frustration that he said is normal when games start slipping away.

“The vibe in the room is some anger mixed with some frustration,” Bednar said.

He expects more from his team in Game 3. Colorado has been outshooting Vegas by a 68-53 margin, but the scoreboard hasn’t reflected enough of that pressure.

“Which I think is normal. It’s all fine,” Bednar said. “We’ve got to be better than we were in Game 1 and 2. It’s not like we didn’t go and compete hard or play harder. but again. with it being such a fine line. a mistake or two can cost you the hockey game. We need to do a little bit better job of forcing them into a few more mistakes. and we have to clean up some of our own.”.

For all the Avalanche’s volume, the Golden Knights’ defense has tightened up around Colorado’s core scorers. Only captain Gabriel Landeskog, Ross Colton and Valeri Nichushkin have found goals on Carter Hart in the series. Nathan MacKinnon. who set the tone in the regular season with a league-leading 53 goals. has been neutralized. along with 100-point scorer Martin Necas. Brock Nelson, another steady offensive piece, is a minus-5 in the series.

Bednar didn’t dress it up. If this were merely a bad stretch against a hot opponent, he said the reaction would be different. The fact that his team believes it still hasn’t shown its best is part of what keeps Game 3 from turning into panic.

“If I felt like we played our best game in Game 1 and our best game in Game 2 and we lost. I’d be a little bit more like. ‘Oh. I’m really worried about this. ’” Bednar said. “They still haven’t seen our best, and maybe we haven’t seen their best, either. We have a number of areas in our game that we can improve for Game 3 to give us a better chance of winning.”.

Colorado Avalanche Vegas Golden Knights Western Conference Final Game 3 Cale Makar Logan O’Connor Scott Wedgewood Jared Bednar Gabriel Landeskog Nathan MacKinnon Martin Necas Carter Hart