Avalanche maintain ‘belief’ for thrilling, series-clinching comeback in Game 5

DENVER -- Brett Kulak raised his arms in jubilation after he scored the deciding goal and the defenseman, wide open for Martin Necas’ pass in the early minutes of overtime, was mobbed by his Colorado Avalanche teammates.

What looked as if it would be a terrible night for the Avalanche after the first period turned into an amazing, thrilling, crazy, chaotic and for them, awesome comeback that culminated with Kulak’s winner.

“I mean, it’s got to be, comebacks, probably No. 1, I guess,” Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon said after they turned a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 overtime win against the Minnesota Wild in Game 5 of the Western Conference Second Round at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

Not surprisingly, MacKinnon played his part in the comeback. The center scored at 18:37 of the third period to tie the game 3-3, his shot finding what little space there was between the post and Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt.

The Avalanche advance to the Western Conference Final, where they’ll await the winner of the Vegas Golden Knights-Anaheim Ducks second-round series. The Golden Knights lead that series 3-2 heading into Game 6, which is at Honda Center in Anaheim on Thursday (9:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN360, SN, TVAS).

“That building was special tonight. It was so loud. That’s why you play the game, for those reasons right there,” MacKinnon said. “The excitement when (Kulak) scored, it’s just a really cool moment for everybody.”

It seemed an unlikely moment after the first period when Minnesota got off to a sizzling start and a 3-0 lead. Ball Arena was quiet. Colorado looked off a step or two, looked disconnected. It looked like it was going to be a repeat of Game 3 when the Avalanche played arguably their worst game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs thus far.

So, at first intermission the Avalanche switched goalies, from starter Mackenzie Blackwood to Scott Wedgewood. Blackwood allowed three goals on 13 shots.

Besides the goalie change, was anything said entering the second period?

“I’m not going to tell you what it was, but it wasn’t anything crazy,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Again, just trying to give them a message that sort of simplifies where it starts for us. What’s the starting point here, because we were losing all over the ice, in every aspect. So just trying to break it down. Where do we start? What do we have to concentrate on first? What’s next? Then give them a third thing and just do that. We’ll start to gain a little momentum.

“When it comes to the goalie switch, a regular-season game, I would’ve left Blackwood in there because he was no different than the rest of our team. Like, we just weren’t good enough. But you’re looking for a spark.”

It worked. The Avalanche came out in the second period looking more like themselves. They pushed the pace, they fired more shots on Wallstedt, they limited the Wild’s opportunities.

Parker Kelly’s second goal of the playoffs gave Colorado life at the 11-minute mark of the second period. The Avalanche were looking a little off again to start the third period, and the clock was ticking. Maybe it wasn’t going to happen after all.

Then Jack Drury scored with 3:33 remaining in regulation.

It wasn’t over yet.

“At that point, when Jack scored to make it 3-2, we knew we were kind of knocking on the door,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said.

Just over two minutes later, MacKinnon kicked in the door. Tie game, Ball Arena going crazy.

“Yeah, definitely. I could definitely feel it, hear it. That was cool, really cool,” MacKinnon said of the reaction to his goal. “It was pretty shortly after (Drury) scored, it went in, so fans are still kind of standing up, I think, and into it. Really cool moment. Obviously, coming back from 3-0, we’re feeling good going into overtime. I feel like we’re a good second-period team and in overtime that’s where the nets are. Yeah, just kind of all over them from the start.”

The momentum was all Avalanche. They outshot the Wild 4-0 in overtime. Kulak’s moment? Well, he couldn’t have scripted it any better.

“You always like to dream about it, but the player I am, I'm not the guy everyone's looking down the bench like, 'All right, get out there and go win it for us.' So no, it's been good,” Kulak said with a smile. “It was a tough series. That's a good team over there. So, for us to play the way we did and get the job done, and just for me, a special goal in my career, for sure.”

It was quite the exclamation point on the series for the Avalanche, but they’re not done yet. As Bednar reminded everyone at the end of the night, Colorado is only halfway through the postseason.

The Avalanche will get some rest, which they’ll need. Defenseman Cale Makar looks like he’s hurting -- Bednar said afterward he was “OK.” Forward Artturi Lehkonen and defenseman Sam Malinski have missed the past two games with upper-body injuries.

Colorado will enjoy this game. And what a game it was.

“Just the belief. We just find ways to claw back,” Necas said. “If they're going to play a little bit more puck management, time management, we’re going to get chances. We just had to get on our side of the puck, which we were, and we found a way to do it.”