9-1-1: Rocky Mountains

The NHL has reached the penultimate day of March, and for the Colorado Avalanche, the month ends. Coming off a home loss to the Winnipeg Jets, the Avs remained at home against another Canadian franchise: the Calgary Flames. Oh boy. The Flames are a mess. Four years ago, this team finished first in the Pacific and reached the second round. What followed was the team losing so many relevant players, including watching one of them win a Stanley Cup--twice. The Flames are in total hell, but they'll at least draft early. So there's that.

Scott Wedgewood was in net against Dustin Wolf. Where do I start?! At 2:31, Jack Drury gets his tenth. Parker Kelly and Sam Malinski assisted. Avs later had a power play that turned into 81 seconds of 5-on-3. On the two-man advantage, Nazem Kadri scores against his former team. Martin Necas and Cale Makar assisted. 66 seconds later, on the 5-on-4, it's Kadri again! Two goals on the same power play, and it's 3-0 already. It became 4-0 when Gabriel Landeskog put it in at 9:19. The opening frame wasn't half over, and we were up 4-0 just like that!

That was it for Dustin Wolf, and let me say this. This was not on Wolf. The Flames knew it. Wolf knew it. This was a mercy pull. The Avs outshot Calgary, at that point, 16-4. He had 12 saves in that onslaught. Usually a goalie's pulled that early when they give up three or four goals on six or seven shots. This wasn't that. They did Wolf a favor. Devin Cooley took over for the Flames, and he faced 10 shots in the rest of the frame, but one went in. Parker Kelly made it 5-0, and that was the score after 20 minutes. Here's the crazy thing. Five Avs goals, but you know whose name wasn't on the scoresheet? Nathan MacKinnon. That's the part that should have other teams really scared of us.

Second period was quiet, but let's be fair--a sonic boom would be quiet compared to that first period. Flames did get on the board, though. Brennan Othmann put Calgary on the board, and afterwards, Calgary had a PP, but we killed it off. Still mostly quiet, but at the near end of the period, we had a power play, resulting in another goal! This time, it was ol' #29, Nathan MacKinnon, with his 49th of the season! Cale Makar and Brock Nelson assisted, and the Avs led 6-1 after 40.

This game was done. The third period was just a formality. Martin Necas made it 7-1. Less than two minutes later, Sam Malinski made it 8-1. Ryan Strome got one for Calgary to pretty much make himself feel better, a good self-esteem boost, but just for the hell of it, Artturi Lehkonen got one himself. 9-2 for the Avs, and that drew the "We want ten!" chants from the home crowd. A 10th Avs goal would not be scored, but it doesn't matter.

The Colorado Avalanche blasted the Calgary Flames, 9-2, in a game that saw us score five goals in the first period, and score three times on the power play! The Avs finish the month of March with fifteen PPGs in that very month! The power play lives! And I just want to say this: it is very fitting that on a day that saw myself catch up on 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Nashville, the Avalanche beat a team called Flames. We did some extinguishing of our own tonight!

With the win, the Avalanche's magic number to win the Central Division (and most likely the Presidents' Trophy) is down to eight points (four wins). Next up, the Avs will host the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, and after that, it's the big meeting with Dallas on Saturday, which could be the game where we clinch the Central!

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