Win In Chicago Huge For Avs

CHICAGO--With one game between it and the NHL's mandated three-day holiday sabbatical, the Colorado Avalanche entered United Center looking for more than just a victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.
The team needed something positive to build on after going winless it its last five games and scoreless in its previous two contests.
That's what the Avs got in Friday's 2-1 overtime win in the Windy City.

"I think this is a huge win before Christmas," Mikko Rantanen said postgame. "Now we have a couple days off so we can go into the Christmas break with a win, so that is the most important thing. It has been tough for us, but today we showed how we can play."
It was a gritty triumph, the kind that is born from hard work, determination and sticking to the game plan no matter what.
The Avs skated with the top dog Blackhawks, top to bottom. They were tenacious, focused and not without a heavy dose of desperation. They wanted it, and even though the visiting club fell behind in the middle frame, they weren't going to be stopped.

"We stuck to the game plan for 60 minutes, and it just had that feeling that we were going to tie it up in the third," goaltender Calvin Pickard said. "It was a lot of fun, and we had a lot of good chances. Their goalie was awesome, too. He played great. It was definitely a big win for us to go into the break feeling good about ourselves."
In fact, meeting adversity with relentless ambition is exactly what head coach Jared Bednar liked about the game. The fact that no matter how down the squad might have been after falling to a deficit, the team didn't roll over and give up.
"You can't quit in this game. You got to keep battling," Bednar said. "This is the type of performance that we need to keep trying to repeat. It didn't matter if it was 1-0. They scored on that power play, it could be easy to get down, and we've done that too often lately, but tonight we didn't. We stuck with it and got the job done."
Perhaps it was the sense of relief at breaking the goalless streak, or the endless supply of wet, dirty clothes being tossed in his face during his postgame interview, but Mikko Rantanen--who scored the important tying goal--struggled to find words to describe the emotion the club experienced when he tallied.
"Of course, it was nice to get a goal there. It was a big goal for us," the rookie said through an enormous smile. "It was a game-tying goal. It was a big win, that's the most important thing."

There wasn't much to criticize in Friday's win, which is equally important when it comes to club confidence. The Avalanche started the game hungry and really pushed the pace against Chicago, hemming the home team in early. After that, Colorado was firing pucks, playing responsible defense and working the system.
"I would say that was a great effort. That was a great team effort from every guy," Bednar said. "To a man, I thought we played the way we need to play. Too often this year we've been in circumstances where we should be taking advantage of it and haven't, and we wanted to make sure tonight that we could try and break that and make a statement, try and start building something.
"And what better time than against this team, against this goalie, in this building. I think under the circumstances, it says a lot about our team. Now we got to find a way to duplicate that performance and repeat it over and over again. To me, that is the standard of our team, and we haven't met it enough."
The club beat the Western Conference-leading Blackhawks in a tight, hard-fought contest. It proves, if only to the players themselves, that they can compete with the best of them.

"It tells us that we can beat anybody, anywhere if we play our game plan for 60 minutes. We did that tonight right from the puck drop," said Pickard. "We talked about that after the first. It was 0-0. We were playing with the puck a lot. It is a lot of fun for everybody to play like that, when you're rolling four lines and playing in the offensive zone. No one wants to play in the D-zone. It's a lot of fun, and it's something to build off of, for sure.
"This is a tough place to win and under the circumstances, back-to-back, and not having a very good stretch the last little bit. We just came out and played and played our game plan from start to finish."
Rantanen scored 5:42 into the final frame to reignite Colorado, which remained steady enough to force the extra frame of bonus hockey. It wasn't long after--25 seconds to be exact--that jubilant shouts of success echoed throughout the bench and dressing room after Nathan MacKinnon ended things with his marker.
"To be able to get that equalizer and give ourselves a chance to win that game, it's a sense of relief on our bench [as] goals are hard to come by," Bednar said. "You have to work extremely hard to get them, and it was no different tonight. That didn't come easy, that's for sure."
"We were doing everything but scoring there for a while, and we were getting a lot of chances," Pickard said. "[Corey] Crawford was making great saves, and it took a perfect play to beat him. To go 1-1 and then back and forth, it was a very exciting game. And once it goes to 3-on-3, it's almost anyone's game. We got the puck there 2-on-1, and Nate made a beautiful shot."

Now the Avs can enjoy their holiday rest, spending quality time with friends and family before returning to action on Tuesday with a home game against the Calgary Flames.
"It gives us a few days off. We're not feeling negative," MacKinnon said. "We're still not in a great position in the standings, but we're going into the break with some positivity in our minds. We're not pouting a little bit with our families. We get to enjoy Christmas on a positive note. It feels good."