After an easy walk and a dry win against Nashville in the first round, the Avalanche finally felt like the playoffs had begun. “St. Louis”, who knocked out a strong “Minnesota”, already in the first match of the confrontation gave the “Colorado” a fight, losing only in overtime.

And in the second meeting, the “bluesmen” indicated that they were not going to repeat the fate of the “predators”. And the main weapon of “St. Louis” in the fight against “Colorado” is the game in the majority. And in the second match of the series, it brought the Blues victory, but the fans believe that the judges undeservedly gave the Bluesmen a game in unequal lineups.

The playoffs have just begun for Colorado.

The Avalanche have started the season in recent years as a favorite and one of the contenders to win the Stanley Cup. And in this regular season, the team from Colorado lived up to all the expectations placed on them. The Avalanches were in contention for the President’s Cup, but were only four points short of being named the best team in the league in the regular season. But even without the President’s Cup, the Aves broke into the playoffs more than confidently, defeating Nashville in the first round with a clean sheet.

At the same time, Colorado fans were a little embarrassed that the path to the next stage turned out to be so easy and could relax the team. After all, the rival in the second round was “St. Louis”, who fought with “Minnesota” and already felt the taste of the playoffs.

But the opening match of the series with the Bluesmen did not reveal any problems with motivation, and even more so with the playing form of Colorado. After a hard-fought win in overtime in the first leg, the Aves fans believed their favorites could make it to the Conference Finals, where the Avalanche hadn’t been since 2002.

Valery Nichushkin / Photo: © Jeff Bottari / Contributor / National Hockey League / Gettyimages.com

Interestingly, both St. Louis and Colorado are leading this playoff in terms of majority conversion. Therefore, playing in unequal lineups can decide the outcome of not only a single meeting, but the entire series. Louis Head Coach Craig Berubi

“Colorado has a lot of top-notch players. We will have to do a lot of things right and we have to be very disciplined and stay away from the penalty box when playing against them,” Berubi said.

Fans vs referees

The St. Louis coaching staff’s setup was perfectly executed in the first period – the Bluesmen never visited the bad guys’ bench in the starting 20 minutes. But the Avalanche players, understanding who they are playing with, showed disciplined hockey, also not gaining penalty minutes. The players of both teams had such a “clean” period that “zero” was not only in the graph of deletions, but also abandoned goals. However, already in the second period, the teams forgot about caution.

The starting 20-minute period began with a curious goal by St. Louis forward Jordan Kairu. After the transfer from Pavel Buchnevich, the forward on the flank went into the zone and threw it into the near corner from the throw-in point. The goalkeeper missed the throw, and a red lantern immediately lit up above him.

After that, what the head coach of St. Louis was so afraid of happened – the Blues remained in the minority. However, the Blues acted confidently in unequal lineups and survived. And at the end of the period, the Colorado hockey players were in the minority twice in a row. First, the Avalanche received a removal out of the blue in the opponent’s zone. Then the judges sent Valery Nichushkin to the penalty box, which caused indignation of the entire stadium.

Nichushkin in the minority got a chance to run one on one with the opponent’s goalkeeper, but he did not have enough speed to get rid of the defender. With the “bluesman” on his shoulders, Valery nevertheless dragged the puck to the goal, but instead of throwing or beating at full speed, he knocked the St. Louis goalkeeper down. The judges immediately lit the removal, and the keeper Jordan Binnington, barely getting up, rushed to Nichushkin to sort things out, but his own players were stopped.

And when Nichushkin appeared in the penalty box, the Colorado home stadium simply exploded – the Avalanche fans unanimously chanted chants about “bad” judges. St. Louis players also added fuel to the fire, who quickly converted the majority. David Perron from the transfer of Buchnevich and Vladimir Tarasenko hit the Colorado goal with a powerful throw.

Pavel Buchnevich / Photo: © Jason Franson / Keystone Press Agency / Global Look Press

And during the break before the final 20 minutes, Evs fans began to blame the “disgusting” refereeing.

“The judges just love St. Louis,” writes Mr. Productionx

– Alternate form “Blues” looks like a referee, – jokes Alatorre2

In the third period, the judges decided to align the teams in terms of penalty minutes and sent Perron to the penalty box. Colorado also showed that in training they are working on the game in the majority – Gabriel Landeskog closed the gap on the Blues.

After the abandoned puck, “Evs” began to storm the gates of “St. Louis”. However, the “bluesmen” were able to endure and catch the opponent on the counterattack – all the same Perron effectively completed the “2 in 1” exit.

The Colorado hockey players ended up with the sixth outfield on the ice, but the attempt to save the meeting turned out unsuccessfully for them – Brandon Saad threw it into an empty net.

As a result, the “bluesmen” took a confident revenge on the “Evalanche” – 4:1. The Russian players also contributed to the victory – an assist by Tarasenko and an assistant double by Buchnevich. But Nichushkin did not score with effective actions, and he watched one of the goals of the “bluesmen” from the penalty box.

In the second match, the teams showed each other that even some four penalty minutes can lead to defeat. It is possible that now the series will be over-disciplined on both sides.