By: Brandon Rivera
Game four of the Western Conference Championship round went well beyond expectations with the Edmonton Oilers facing elimination on their home ice.
The Edmonton Oilers had their backs against the wall fending off a relentless Colorado Avalanche team, had to do nothing more than to leave it out all on the ice, and that’s just what they did in game four.
The Colorado Avalanche struck early less than four minutes into the start of the first period on a Cale Makar goal about four feet from the blue line. The Game remained 1-0 through the first period. The second period is where Edmonton really pressed Colorado, tying up the game on goal from Zach Hyman. About nine minutes later Edmonton Oiler Ryan Nugent-Hopkins capitalized on a bad pass off the boards by the Avalanche and moved unchallenged towards the net scoring Edmonton’s second goal giving the Oilers a 2-1 lead.
Edmonton wasn’t finished, as they pressed the Avalanche yet again with less than a minute and a half left to play in the second when Edmonton superstar Connor McDavid zipped one past Pavel Francouz at the end of two to give the Oilers a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.
Down 3-1 with only a period left would fold most teams, but not the Avalanche. This team was made to overcome adversity and Colorado showed that when they scored 30 seconds into the third period, pulling to within one. Edmonton, however, responded less than four minutes later scoring their fourth goal and taking a 4-2 lead over the Avalanche. The Colorado Avalanche down 4-2 had to come up big and with 11:03 left to play, Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog knocked the rebound into the net bringing the Avs to within one (4-3).
With 6:30 left in the game Avs superstar Nathan MacKinnon is fed the puck as he crossed the blue line in a one-on-one matchup where he fired the puck top shelf to tie the game at 4 apiece quieting the rowdy Edmonton fan base.
Just over a minute later Mikko Rantanen scores on the power play to give the Avalanche the lead 5-4. Two minutes later with only 3:22 left to play the Oilers score the tying goal sending the game into overtime.
With less than two minutes into overtime and a faceoff in the Oilers zone, the puck came out to Cale Makar who shot the puck on goal with deflected off Oilers goalie Mike Smith to an Artturi Lehkonen, sliding across the crease with the rebound goal to end the game, series, and sweep of the Edmonton Oilers.
The last time the Colorado Avalanche made it to the Stanley Cup championship was in 2001 when they defeated the New Jersey Devils. The Colorado Avalanche became the team to beat over the past few seasons however with early exits from the playoff picture, fans became frustrated.
This year was different with the Avs accomplishing two sweeps and no losses on the road, and with the two remaining teams battling for the last seed for the cup have their hands full before the series even begins. Congratulations Avalanche!
