DENVER -- All it took was two minutes for the Colorado Avalanche to go from possibly tying the Western Conference finals to now being forced to do something they have done only once since moving to Denver.
Colorado churned its way to a 1-0 lead in Game 2 on Friday night only to have Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev score within two minutes of each other in the third period to help the Vegas Golden Knights snag a 3-1 win.
Exactly how crippling is it for the Avalanche to fall into a 2-0 series hole? For one, it's the first time they lost in 2025-26 after entering the third period with a lead. They were 41-0-0 in the regular season and had been 4-0 this postseason.
Perhaps the most daunting aspect facing the Avalanche is that they are now charged with trying to win a series after trailing 2-0 for the first time since 1999 when they rallied to beat the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference semifinals.
That's the only time the Avalanche have come back from a 2-0 deficit to win a playoff series since the franchise relocated from Quebec City. The Quebec Nordiques pulled it off twice: the 1982 division finals against the Boston Bruins and the 1987 division semifinal against the Hartford Whalers, according to ESPN Research.
"That's why it's a seven-game series," Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood said. "You have to find a way to win a game and go from there. What we can do is focus on the next one. You can't think too far ahead of it. Honestly, you have to prepare for the next one. There's no bigger story than that."
Similar to Game 1, Wedgewood was forced to make several key saves early with the Golden Knights getting seven shots in the first six minutes to the Avalanche's two. One of his strongest saves came when Vegas defenseman Rasmus Andersson played a pass from the Golden Knights' zone to find Mitch Marner for a breakaway. Marner, who leads the Stanley Cup playoffs in points, had his shot denied by Wedgewood with 6:12 left in the first.
Colorado would take its first lead of the conference finals when Ross Colton scored on a wrist shot with 3:01 left in the first period.
But that was one of the few breakthroughs the Avalanche had in a night defined by frustration.
Mistakes such as the one made on Marner's breakaway remained present. There were times when the Avalanche tried clearing the puck only to have the Golden Knights regain possession while remaining in Colorado's zone.
Those miscues were further compounded by others. The Avalanche were assessed so many penalties that it led to the Golden Knights, who have one of the top five power plays this postseason, going on the extra-skater advantage four times only to come away with nothing.
Even when the Avalanche survived those defensive challenges, they faced even more whenever they had the puck in the hopes of adding to their lead.
Colorado went on the power play twice but struggled to find a shot, execute a clean pass or get into position with all three happening on one particular sequence.
It was no different when the Avalanche were in 4-on-4 or 5-on-5 situations as they watched many of their strongest forwards find space in high-danger areas only to see those chances go wide of Carter Hart, who made 29 saves while his team blocked 16 shots.
"We have chances to extend that lead to 2-0," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I think back on some big moments -- the 4-on-4. We're in the zone for a minute plus, we get [Nathan] MacKinnon from the slot, we miss the net. We get [Devon] Toews from the slot, we missed the net. We get Val Nichushkin coming downhill and miss the net."
Now compare that to what the Golden Knights did in the third period. They got into the Avalanche's zone when Eichel, off the rush, was able to gain separation and beat Wedgewood to tie the score with 10:45 remaining in the third period.
Eichel was at the center of the next goal when he corralled a loose puck and fed it to Barbashev, who snapped a shot from the slot that gave the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead with 8:38 remaining.
Vegas scoring back-to-back goals forced Colorado into attempting a third-period comeback for a third consecutive game.
The Avalanche pulled it off against the Minnesota Wild in Game 5 of the semifinal round when they fell into a 3-0 hole and scored three unanswered goals before winning in overtime. They tried doing it in Game 1 after falling into another three-goal deficit before losing 4-2. They tried to make amends for Game 1 only to watch Barbashev's empty-net goal with 1:03 remaining seal Game 2.
"I think it's the same stuff," Avalanche forward Logan O'Connor said when asked if the Golden Knights did anything different between games. "We're going to make adjustments along the way as well. We're going to continue to look at things and scrape away and try to generate more chances and try to take away their rush. ... It's on us to tweak things along the way. That's what a seven-game series is for."
Could it be possible that getting Cale Makar back is one of those adjustments? The two-time Norris Trophy winner missed just the third postseason game of his career as he continues to recover from a lower-body injury that kept him out of Game 1.
Makar skated prior to Friday's optional morning skate, where he participated in various drills. He left the ice before morning skate but came back to join the group before Bednar ruled him out for Game 2.
"There's urgency to get him back since he's gotten hurt," Bednar said. "But it's going to be Cale's decision on when he's coming back. He's doing all the work he can possibly do to get back as fast as he can."
Bednar, who is the second-longest-tenured coach in the NHL, has guided the Avalanche to the playoffs nine times during his 10 seasons behind the bench. The only time they have lost the first two games of a playoff series under Bednar came in 2020 when they played the Dallas Stars in the second round of the Edmonton bubble. The Avalanche would come back to force a Game 7 with a roster ravaged by injuries only to be eliminated.
With six players on the roster from the last time they were in that position, how do the Avalanche go about doing something that the franchise hasn't done for almost 30 years?
"It starts with attitude first," Bednar said. "What type of attitude and belief do you have in our team? How do you get your mindset to go do what you need to do to play? It doesn't guarantee you a win in Game 3. We know that, it just doesn't. We played our butts off tonight and didn't win. But it doesn't mean we can't go play a similar game in Game 3 and win."
