SAN JOSE, Calif. — A season ended Wednesday night, but a team’s belief did not.
The Avalanche lost superstar forward Nathan MacKinnon to injury early in Game 7 at the SAP Center, and when MacKinnon returned late in the first period against San Jose, Colorado trailed 2-0. But the resilient Avs battled back before falling 3-2 in the Western Conference semifinal series.
The Avs nearly forced overtime with two golden opportunities in the final minutes.
But in the end, the veteran Sharks were inspired by the return of captain Joe Pavelski from injury and used a successful coach’s challenge to negate a Colorado goal and earn a trip to the Western Conference final against St. Louis.
“Our season’s over. So it’s tough. We set high expectations for ourselves. and we came up a little bit short,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It was a real good series, but they were the better team for two big portions of tonight’s game. And they won, and they deserved to win. I loved our push at the end. We had some chances to tie it, and our guys fought real hard all the way to the end.”
The Avs appeared to score three goals, but only two counted as San Jose’s coach’s challenge negated Colin Wilson‘s tally early in the second period that appeared to tie the game 2-2. Wilson made a shift change for Gabe Landeskog, and Landeskog was ultimately ruled offside while standing on the ice outside the Avs’ bench.
Colorado argued that Landeskog had a skate on the blue line when the puck entered the offensive zone. Afterward, Bednar declined to talk about the disallowed goal or the officiating.
“To be honest, I didn’t think anything of it,” Landeskog said of the controversial call. “I came off, and all of a sudden I see Nate give the puck to Willie and Willie scores. I didn’t think anything of it, to be honest, and then they didn’t drop the puck. They checked the iPads (behind the bench) and coaches said my skates were still on the ice. I guess I was offside. We saw some frozen frames, and it looked like my one skate was on the blue line.”
Colorado ultimately got its second goal early in the third period, when Tyson Jost scored for the third consecutive game to get within 3-2.
Gabe Landeskog about his offside that negated a goal and the future of the #Avs pic.twitter.com/zT1h5AP5Xn
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers) May 9, 2019
Pavelski made his series debut and played a big factor, scoring the game’s first goal and assisting on the second. Colorado got within 2-1 in the final minute of the first period, and shortly after its disallowed goal in the second the Sharks capitalized on a wretched defensive-end turnover by defenseman Nikita Zadorov to take a 3-1 lead. Sharks forward Joonas Donskoi made Zadorov pay with a wicked wrist shot from the left circle, and suddenly the Sharks re-established their two-goal lead.
Wilson thought he and Landeskog made a good line change leading to what appeared to be a tying goal.
“I heard something about Landy changing, but I haven’t looked at it because I didn’t want to,” Wilson said. “It seemed like a good change. Where the gate is — it’s on the (defensive) side of the blue line, so I think it looked to them like he had a foot over the blue.
“It was a huge goal not to have. They came out after that and scored a goal, so it was a huge, two-goal swing right there. It changed the game. But I guess that’s why they have that rule in place. They have to check for offside, and it is what it is.”
No team won consecutive games in the series. San Jose won Games 1, 3, 5 and 7. Colorado prevailed in Games 2, 4 and 6. The Sharks advanced to the conference final against the St. Louis Blues.
MacKinnon left early in the first period with a shoulder injury when the Avalanche was on the power play in a 0-0 game. When he returned with about six minutes left in the period, the Avs trailed 2-0.
Pavelski scored and assisted on goals at 5:57 and 11:35 as San Jose went up by two goals. But the Avs got one back in the last minute of the first period when Rantanen redirected in a shot from Sam Girard at the point.
MacKinnon said his shoulder injury will require “rehab.” He was able to return after receiving a shot “of something” in the dressing room.
“I got a needle in my shoulder, and I’m sure they’ll come out with something about my injury,” MacKinnon said. “It’s tough. Last minute we could have tied it up. Nothing would go in. It’s unfortunate.”
Footnote. Avs forward Matt Calvert missed his third consecutive game and fourth of the series with the upper-body injury he suffered late in Game 2. Colorado’s 20-man lineup again featured an extra defenseman (seven) and one less forward (11).
#COLvsSJS https://t.co/L4Vdrz87b7
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers) May 9, 2019
