As Advertised: Avalanche and Oilers play wild Game 1, Colorado survives

On Tuesday, the high-flying Avalanche and fast-paced Oilers met in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. It went as expected.

BY JAKE SHAPIRO

May 31, 2022, 10:11 PM Updated: 10:19 pm

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In September 1896, thousands of people bought train tickets to watch a stagged locomotive crash.

Fundamentally every single person rushing to the site in McLennan County, Texas, knew what they were about to see and yet everyone went. The onlookers were shocked by the 45-mph moving engines headed at speed towards each. Bang! They crashed and the patrons were shocked by the explosion, hurling steel and wood.

They knew exactly what they were about to see; why were they shocked?

On Tuesday, the high-flying Colorado Avalanche and fast-paced Edmonton Oilers met in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. The matchup marqueed by Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl and Cale Makar was expected to play out like video game hockey—non-stop action, seldom scoreless moments, big hits and chaos.

Game 1 went exactly as anticipated, as the Avs won 8-6 in the NHL’s first 14-goal Stanley Cup Playoff game this deep into the postseason since 1985. And yet, it was still stunning to watch.

“I don’t really think that’s playoff hockey,” Makar uttered to TNT after the game.

Makar, the young defenseman, notched four points—including the controversial go-ahead goal—to out-pace his production from the entire last series.

“We did some things well, but we gave them a lot of options that we weren’t giving up these past two series,” Makar told the media. “They have a lot of skilled players; we need to mark those guys. At the same time, we can be better defensively. That’s definitely not how you want to play against these guys.”

The thrilling game was made even more anxiety-inducing when Avs starting goalie Darcy Kuemper left with an injury in the second period. Backup Pavel Francouz once again performed admirably in an emergency spot.

“I think I had, like, one or two shifts to stretch in the background and get ready, so it wasn’t like going in in the right moment,” Francouz said. “But I had a little bit of time to stretch and try to put my thoughts together.”

Francouz made more stops than Kuemper in the game. After the contest, Head Coach Jared Bednar said the starter is out with an upper-body injury but would not share details or a timetable for health.

“We didn’t plan to play such a game, but we’ll take the win,” Francouz said.

It was the first playoff game in NHL history to feature both teams netting six scores and each team playing two goalies. The Oilers pulled Mike Smith after Colorado scored their sixth goal just 26 minutes into the game. Mikko Koskinen made 20 saves in relief.

“We need four, we got one. There’s a lot of work to do” MacKinnon said. “We would prefer to not have an 8-6 game. … We’ve got to find a way to get the momentum back as they push.”

The Oilers lost Game 1 of their Second Round series to Calgary in a contest with 15 goals. It was Edmonton’s lone loss in the battle of Alberta.

“To a man, we weren’t good enough defensively,” Oilers Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said.

Colorado and Edmonton are back at it in Denver on Thursday.
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