Avs tie it at 59:59!

Just yesterday I wrote a post of the best games I've ever seen on TV...and didn't have any that qualified for the Avalanche, despite catching about 40-50 of their 70 games so far this year.

There was a Duchene OT winner over Christmas break in O'Fallon. And a shootout win against the Blues that I made Brittany watch even though she couldn't care less.

But last night...

For the last 18 minutes of regulation, the Avs were down a goal and were pressing. Shot after shot, chance after chance. They even got a power play with 5 minutes to go. But no goals...

- - -

Before the game, I figured that COL needed to win 7 of their remaining 11 to make the playoffs. Coming in to the game, they had won 8 of their last 11. So it's not crazy.

But as the clock winded down, suddenly that stat was about to change to needing to win 7 of their last 10. Not great.

The Avs pulled their goalie, and following a offensive zone faceoff the puck was cleared down to the Avs end.

Downie had the puck behind the goal with 12 seconds left.

He passes it to Landeskog, who gets the puck at the top of his defensive faceoff circle with 9.7 left.

Landeskog races to the left of one Sabre, then the right of the next. And enters the zone at 7.2 seconds. He shoots the puck from the far left wing with 5.7 on the clock.

The puck goes wide of the net.

On the other side, O'Reilly gathers the puck at 4.1 and flings it toward the net at 3.5. He's basically flush with the goal line at this point. If the puck gets in-between the post and the goalie, I doubt it goes in.

It hits the side of the net at 3.2.

999 times out of 1000 the puck bounces to the side and back of the goal and the game is over. But this time the puck hits a Sabre curling around the net. It bounces off him, between the post and the goalie.

With 2.3 to go, the puck hits the ice inches from the goal line.

McGinn who just charged the net swats at it at 2.1, then slams it home on his second try with 1.7 left.

The overhead view toward the end of this clip shows what happened the best.



In case that one ever goes down, here's a link to the NHLVideo youtube version.

And here's an awesome link: the homer announcers call the last 25 seconds. The color guy provides a disappointed grunt when the Sabres clear it.

So that goal tied the game and earned the Avs one point. When they won the shootout (9-1 now in shootouts!) they got the second point.

Crazy.