The Colorado Avalanche were under five minutes away from having their season end on Friday night, trailing the Nashville Predators 1-0 in Game 5 of their first-round series.
But the Avs looked like the desperate, hungry team they were in the moment, and kicked it up a notch in the final minutes.
The Avs had a tremendous, lengthy shift going in the Predators’ zone, and were rewarded for it when Gabriel Landeskog scored on a beautiful feed from Nathan MacKinnon with 4:11 remaining.
And with 1:28 left, the Avs scored what would serve as the game-winning, season-saving goal on this rebound from Sven Andrighetto:
Oh, and this was all with the Avs playing their third-string goalie, Andrew Hammond. The 30-year-old stopped 44 of 45 Nashville shots in a brilliant performance.
44 saves for "3rd string" goaltender Andrew Hammond and overcoming what was a bad call (Just my opinion) to force game 6 against the Stanley Cup Favourite – a team most people thought would sweep the Avs.
This is why I love hockey.
— Jackie Redmond (@Jackie_Redmond) April 21, 2018
Andrew Hammond: 1st goalie since Phillip Grubauer (2014-15 with WSH) to play just a single regular season game but then go on to win a playoff game later that same season
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) April 21, 2018
So, there will be a Game 6, and that will take place in Denver. The Avs will certainly have the momentum and crowd on their side as they try to force a Game 7.
