Avalanche face an uphill climb in Vegas as they try to flip a 2-0 series script in conference finals

DENVER (AP) — The signs appear grim for the Colorado Avalanche: Down 2-0 after two home losses. Missing Cale Makar. Three goals in the series for the highest scoring team in the league. Heading to Vegas. History working against them.

“We dug a hole,” forward Logan O’Connor said as the Avalanche prepared for Game 3 at Vegas on Sunday night in the Western Conference Final. “It’s on us (to get out).”

The odds, though, are stacked against them. Since 1982, road teams that have gone 2-0 in the conference finals have a 13-0 series record, according to NHL Stats.

But the Avalanche have worked their way back from a similarly dicey situation before in a playoff series.

Granted, it was 27 years ago when they lost two straight at home to start the 1999 Western Conference semifinals against Detroit before rallying to win.

“Uphill climb,” Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood said. “We have to flip the script on them, in their rink.”

Perhaps a change of scenery can provide a spark. Colorado went 2-0 at Vegas in the regular season, including a 6-5 shootout victory.

“Any building you go into, you can kind of use the crowd noise and advantage in your favor,” forward Parker Kelly said. “Teams come out hard in their home building, so we’ve got to be able to weather the storm, push back and get to our game quick.”

It wasn’t that long ago when Vegas overcame some long odds. The Golden Knights trailed Colorado 2-0 in a second-round series in 2021, only to win four straight. Avalanche forward Nicolas Roy recalls it well — he was with the Golden Knights back then.

“We’ve just got to put on our work boots,” Roy said. “If you have a great effort next game and you win it, then obviously shift the momentum. We believe in this group.”

Colorado very well could have back Makar, who is up for the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman. He has been sidelined all series by an upper-body injury.

“He will tell us when he’s ready to play,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “No one can go into Cale’s body and feel what he’s feeling, so when he feels like he can do all the things he needs to be able to do on the ice to play, then he’s going to make the decision to play.”

The vibe in the room is some anger mixed with some frustration, Bednar said.

“Which I think is normal. It’s all fine,” said Bednar, whose team is outshooting the Golden Knights by a 68-53 margin. “We’ve got to be better than we were in Game 1 and 2. It’s not like we didn’t go and compete hard or play harder, but again, with it being such a fine line, a mistake or two can cost you the hockey game. We need to do a little bit better job of forcing them into a few more mistakes, and we have to clean up some of our own.”

Some of Colorado’s top scorers have struggled against the Golden Knights’ stingy defense. Only captain Gabriel Landeskog, Ross Colton and Valeri Nichushkin have goals on Carter Hart in the series. Nathan MacKinnon, who had a league-leading 53 goals in the regular season, has been neutralized, along with 100-point scorer Martin Necas. Another dependable offensive contributor, Brock Nelson, is a minus-5 in the series.

“If I felt like we played our best game in Game 1 and our best game in Game 2 and we lost, I’d be a little bit more like, ‘Oh, I’m really worried about this,’” Bednar said. “They still haven’t seen our best, and maybe we haven’t seen their best, either. We have a number of areas in our game that we can improve for Game 3 to give us a better chance of winning.”

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