[Critch]

Playoffs Round 1 - Colorado Avalanche

Reasons we can't beat Colorado:
1. They've had a great season - won the Central with 127 points, won the President's Trophy (most points in the NHL) by 13 points, a goal differential of 125 goals
2. They have some great players - Nathan MacKinnon (5.0 star) got 118 points this year, Mikko Rantanen (5.0 star) got 106, Cale Makar (5.0 star) is the league's top defenseman
3. They've got depth - The league positional power rankings ranks them 1st for Forwards, 2nd for Defensemen. Anchorage are 36th for Forwards and 20th for Defensemen. (Not sure how we're 36th for Forwards)
4. We played them 3 times this season and they won them all - (4-2 in Anchorage in October, 4-3 in Colorado in November, 4-2 in Colorado in February)

Reasons we can beat Colorado
1. Cale Makar is injured. He's been out for a month with a dislocated shoulder, he's listed as day-to-day so might be back soon
2. Their goaltending is mediocre - when I saw their goalies I thought they must have an injury because the two guys they're rolling with are cheap and backup level. Cole Brady (1.5 current, 2.0 potential) led the league in GAA, but I guess that's mainly he doesn't face many shots.
3. We're pretty much injury free - Only 4th line Center Philipp Kurashev is out
4. It's the playoffs - Anything can happen. Right?

Game 1 Anchorage Huskies 4 Colorado Avalanche 1
Well we're not getting swept anyway. No scoring in the first period, MacKinnon puts the Avalanche ahead in the 2nd, but defenseman Jordan Spence (a waiver pickup from LA Kings last season) scores with seconds to go in the second to tie it up. A five minute hattrick for Vasili Podkolzin in the third period (3:23, 3:49, 8:22) and it's a 4-1 win on the road. Anchorage have had 1 hattrick in 246 regular season games, and 1 hattrick in 1 playoff game.

Speaking to reporters after the game Vasili Podkolzin said "I hope I did not give the goalie sunburn on the back of his neck from the light going on so much". Zing! (That's from the in-game report)

Game 2 Anchorage Huskies 1 Colorado Avalanche 3
And it's all tied up again. No scoring in the first, Colorado take the lead with a short handed goal from Sampo Ranta in the second, Gabriel Landeskog makes it 2-0 in the third, Olen Zellweger (another waiver pickup defenseman) gets Anchorage back into the game with 10 minutes to play, but Colorado score a late empty net goal to finish it off. Back to Anchorage now.

Game 3 Colorado Avalanche 6 Anchorage Huskies 1
Colorado score early and often to easily win this one, 4 goals in the first period. They're 5-0 up in the second before Hunter McKenzie scores Anchorage's first ever home playoff goal. Nathan McKinnon adds a 6th in the third and Colorado have the home advantage back. Not the best for Anchorage's first ever home playoff game.

Game 4 Colorado Avalanche 1 Anchorage Huskies 4
We're not done yet. Nathan MacKinnon gives Colorado a lead in the first, Podkolzin ties it in the second, then defensemen Brady Skjei and Brandon Montour give Anchorage a 3-1 lead in the third before Podkolzin scores an empty netter to end it, his 5th goal of the series.

Game 5 Anchorage Huskies 4 Colorado Avalanche 5 OT
Ok, we're nearly done now. Yauheni Aksiantsiuk puts Anchorage ahead in the first, but Colorado score three in the first and one in the second to get into a commanding 4-1 lead. Vasili Podkolzin drags Anchorage back into it with his 6th goal of the series with a minute to go in the second, Jordan Spence and Jordan Gavin score within a minute of each other in the third and we're off to overtime. First overtime is scoreless, but Mikko Rantanen gets his 1st of the series 6:14 into the 2nd OT and it's back to Anchorage for a do-or-die game six.

Game 6 Colorado Avalanche 3 Anchorage Huskies 2
And the playoff "run" is over. Mikko Rantanen puts Colorado ahead in the 1st, Nathan MacKinnon makes it 2-0 in the second, an assist for Cale Makar playing his first game back from injury. Vasili Podkolzin scores his 7th of series to bring us back within a goal. Midway through the third MacKinnon scores another, again with a Makar assist and it's 3-1 and we're heading out. Topi Niemela scores a short handed goal with 2:45 left to make it a frantic ending, but Colorado hold on to clinch the series. Anchorage outshot Colorado 41-23 in this game, but the goalie I called "backup level" earlier in this post won the game for them.

Vasili Podkolzin (7 goals, 2 assists) led the team with 9 points, Brandon Montour (1 goal, 5 assists) also showed up well. At the other end of the performance scale Henry Mews had only 1 point (an assist) and a +/- or -4.

So that's the season over. A surprise playoff appearance and they didnt disgrace themselves when they got there, nothing wrong with giving the best team in the league a hard series. A good season all in all.