This game was supposed to have been decided six months ago.
The Edmonton Oilers were doomed to lose it back in July, when the NHL released its schedule.
Teams playing the seventh game of a 15-day road trip through four times zones, in the second of back-to-back games and their third game in four nights, don’t win that game.
Not at high altitude against Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche. Not after falling behind 3-0.
But in a season full of statements, the Oilers issued another one Thursday in Denver, turning a night when they had every reason to shrug their shoulders and look for a soft spot on the canvas, into one of the most impressive comeback wins you’re ever going to witness.
A day after coming back from 2-0 to beat the Minnesota Wild, the Oilers did one better in stunning the Avalanche 4-3 to continue a torrid 19-4-1 pace and move into a tie with Vegas for first place in the Pacific Division.
We’re watching something special here.
The Oilers were down 1-0 on the second shot of the game, down 2-0 on the fourth shot of the game and down 3-0 on the fifth shot of the game.
They were dead and buried by the 11:48 mark of the first period.
But if there is one thing we’ve come to learn about the Oilers is that they are never dead. Never buried.
And sure enough, just when you thought they didn’t have another comeback win left in them, Viktor Arvidsson, Brett Kulak and Connor McDavid tie it before the end of the second period and Evan Bouchard wins it in the third.
Unbelievable.
The Oilers have become accustomed to falling behind early — this game marked the fourth time in the last five games that they’ve been behind 2-0 — and they’ve won three of them.
The Avs have been on another level since shoring up their goaltending problems — in his first 12 games in Colorado, MacKenzie Blackwood went 9-2-1, with a 1.68 goals against average and .938 save percentage. This was first time since Blackwood joined the Avs that any team scored more than two goals on him.
E-mail: [email protected]