It’s fair to say Game 3 of the first-round series between the Colorado Avalanche and the Winnipeg Jets had a little bit of everything.
The Avalanche took the lead in the first period, then surrendered it allowing two goals to Winnipeg in the second, and ultimately went on to score five unanswered goals in the third to grab a 2-1 series lead with a 6-2 win at Ball Arena in Denver, CO.
That, however, was just half of what went down on Friday, April 23, as a brawl erupted right after the final buzzer.
MORE FIREWORKS BETWEEN THE JETS AND AVS 😱
Players grabbed each other, a little pile-up formed in front of Colorado’s net, and things got worse from there… to the point Brenden Dillon got his hand wildly gashed open (warning: graphic content).
Avalanche Come From Behind As Tension Escalates Quickly
The Avs surely had to fight to earn the Game 3 win they ultimately got–and that included doing so before the final horn.
Colorado scored four goals in a little over 10 minutes in the third period with Winnipeg having no answer at all to stop that avalanche of offensive hockey.
Devon Toews wasted zero time hitting the empty netter from long distance, 6-2 Colorado!
Nathan MacKinnon scored the first goal of the third period 2:11 into the frame, and four different players followed suit including Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, Ross Colton, and Devon Toews, the latter putting the cherry on top of a monster win with an empty-net goal from his own zone.
Avalanche’s Rally Started Off Gabriel Vilardi‘s Bloody Hit
Without taking anything from Colorado’s effort, the Avalanche scored their go-ahead goal taking advantage of a power-play situation following a double-minor penalty called on Jets center Gabriel Vilardi for hitting Devon Toews in the face.
Toews put a towel to his face and was forced off the ice for a period of time while Vilardi hit the penalty box and Colorado completed its comeback, one capped by Toews with a couple of minutes to go.
Truth be told, the Jets dominated for two periods and were able to complete their own personal comeback coming back from a one-goal deficit to make it 2-1.
Penalties, however, undid all of the good they had done before entering the third and fateful, final period of play.
Jets Lost Game 3 & Defenseman Brenden Dillon
Not only did the Winnipeg Jets left Game 3 with a loss and trailing Colorado in their first-round series, but thanks to the post-horn brawl they might also be facing more trouble.
There is ample chance defenseman Brenden Dillon is lost for at least a game, if not the remainder of the series, after his hand was cut open by a skate as he was stepped on by someone while lying on the ice after the final buzzer.
Dillon was bleeding profusely (warning: graphic content) while featuring a prominent cut on his left hand. He left the ice as soon as he could disentangle from Avalanche’s forward Brandon Duhaime.
Jets head coach Rick Bowness couldn’t offer an update on Dillon’s injury and his status after the game.
“I can’t give you an update,” Bowness told reporters in his postgame press conference on April 26. “I don’t have an update. [Dillon’s] still being examined. I’ll give you an update when I know more information.”
Asked if there is “a lot of concern” seeing a player get hurt like Dillon was on Friday’s Game 3, Bowness acknowledged, “Yeah, you see the blood… Yeah.”
This outcome could have been avoided, but the writing was probably on the wall following Vilardi’s high-stick on Toews’ face and the little scuffle that popped up with 27 seconds left in the third period.
Avalanche’s Miles Wood and Jets’ Adam Lowry fought each other off of it, dropped to the ice, and tension calmed down a bit until the horn defeaned all folks watching live on location leading up to Dillon’s injury as the main casualty off the final brawl.
The Avs will host the Jets for Game 4 on Sunday, April 28. Following Friday’s loss, Winnipeg’s odds of winning the Stanley Cup dropped to a tiny 2% while the Avalanche’s odds moved up to a sizable 10.4%, the fifth-largest percentage according to MoneyPuck’s model.
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Avalanche vs. Jets Buzzer Brawl: Fights, Blood & 1 Gashed Hand