The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 in Game 2 of the Western Conference Final on Friday night at Ball Arena, leaving Denver with a 2-0 series lead and a Presidents' Trophy winner staring down 0-2 at home.
The third period swung it
Colorado led 1-0 going into the final period — exactly the spot that, all season, had been the safest place in hockey to be. The Avalanche entered Game 2 with a record of 41-0 in the regular season and 4-0 in the playoffs when leading after two periods. That was the streak the Knights ended.
Jack Eichel tied the game at 10:45 of the third. Two minutes and seven seconds later, Ivan Barbashev put Vegas ahead with 8:38 left. Barbashev added an empty-netter at 1:03 to make it 3-1. Carter Hart finished with 29 saves. Colorado scored 1.13 expected goals across the third and the second-period lead simply evaporated.
Makar's absence is the entire story
Cale Makar missed his second consecutive game with an upper-body injury after taking a power-play rep at Friday's optional skate but being scratched a few hours later. He is the defenseman who scored like a winger from the back end all spring, and in Colorado's series preview he was the single biggest reason the Avalanche entered as -240 favorites.
Without him, the Avs cannot run their preferred power play, cannot start breakouts from their own blue line at the same speed, and cannot produce the volume of high-danger chances that built their 121-point regular season. They have produced exactly two goals across two home games against Vegas. The math is unkind to anyone trying to argue this is bad luck rather than personnel.
What this means for the West
The Knights have now won twice in Denver against the team that won the league. They get Games 3 and 4 on Sunday and Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena. Vegas has won three of its first four series-openers on the road this postseason. The franchise that nobody schedules around is one win away from being the third 4-seed-or-worse to make the Cup Final in the past five years.
Colorado's path back into this series runs through Makar's diagnosis. If he plays Sunday, this is still a coin flip. If he doesn't, the Presidents' Trophy curse — no winner has lifted the Cup since Chicago in 2013 — gets one more chapter, and Vegas gets the rest its older roster has earned.
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