DENVER — They had seen this before at Ball Arena. The Avs were knocking on the door, slowly establishing more offensive zone time. A scoring chance here and there. Once Colorado gets one, a second sometimes feels inevitable, especially for an underdog nursing a two-goal lead.
But the Avalanche couldn’t muster a goal. Instead, Cale Makar mishandled the puck in the defensive zone, ex-Av Tyson Jost flicked a difficult pass to Rasmus Dahlin, and Dahlin’s shot beat an unimpeded Alexandar Georgiev off the post. The snowball of momentum collapsed. It was 3-0 Buffalo late in the second period, en route to a 4-2 Avalanche loss Thursday.
The Avs (15-11-2) had six multi-goal comeback wins from the beginning of January to the end of their Stanley Cup run last season, but they haven’t pulled one off yet in the first 28 games of their title defense. So an early 2-0 deficit against the young Sabres presented a mighty obstacle, but an attainable one to overcome with plenty of time.
