Through two periods and the first 12 minutes of the third Friday night, “Gruuuu” chants were heard more than 35 times, providing a groovy environment for the Avalanche and its fans at the Pepsi Center.
Red-hot Avs goalie Philipp Grubauer, however, couldn’t hold a 2-0 lead, allowing fluky goals from Arizona captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson at 12:00 and 19:09 to temporarily silence the sold-out crowd.
A scoreless overtime led to a shootout and Colorado got the job done behind, yes, Grubauer, for a 3-2 shootout win in a game it had to have. Grubauer stopped all three shots he faced and star center Nathan MacKinnon scored for the Avs in the first round.