“I just thought, please don’t let this be how my life ends. I’m not ready to die. When we landed, it was a very rough landing. Like we landed and the plane jolted back up, and that caught a lot of passengers off guard. Everyone kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then you hear the pilot braking, and it was like just this grinding sound.” “Everybody was shocked everywhere. There was — there’s people screaming. The plane just veered off course. I mean, it was just — it all happened so quickly, but it all felt just like a very dire situation.” “Oh, God. Oh my goodness. That’s crazy.” “People were bleeding from their nose, cuts and scrapes. I saw black eyes, all different types of facial contusions, bruising and bleeding. I was sitting by the exit door, and I opened the exit door. There was a sense of camaraderie amongst the survivors. Nobody was pushing, shoving, ‘I got to get out first.’” “The plane actually tipped back as we were leaving, as people were getting off the plane. That was when the nose kind of fell off the front of the plane, and the whole plane kind of went up to what we’d seen in all the pictures of the plane’s nose in the air.” And there was no slide when we got out. A lot of us were jumping off of the airplane wing to get down. And when I got out and I saw that the front of the plane, how destroyed it was, I just was — I was in shock.” “It was only really when I was outside of the plane, looking back at the plane, and I had seen what had happened to the cockpit, and then just like this sense of dread overcame me, where I was just like, wow, a lot of people might have just been pretty badly hurt.” “I’m grateful to the pilots who were so courageous and brave, and acted swiftly, and they saved our lives. And if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to come home to my family. I’m forever indebted to them. They’re my heroes.”

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Just over a week ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins came to Ball Arena and handed the Avalanche their worst loss of the season. The Avalanche returned the favor on Tuesday.

Colorado went into PPG Paints Arena and used a four-goal first period to win 6-2 and get revenge on Sidney Crosby’s Penguins.

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Martin Necas scored two goals, while Nathan MacKinnon, Sam Malinski, Parker Kelly, and Ross Colton each added one, extending Colorado’s winning streak to three games. The Avs also got an assist from Logan O’Connor, who made his season debut after missing the first 69 games of the regular season. Malinski had a helper too, finishing with two points.

Scott Wedgewood made 30 saves in goal, earning his 26th victory of the season to allow the Avs to remain perfect on their road trip. The Avalanche will play in Winnipeg on Thursday before heading back to Ball Arena for three straight.

This was the closest they’ve been to full health since the trade deadline. With Colton and O’Connor returning, head coach Jared Bednar was finally able to slot Nazem Kadri in as the 3C. He played with wingers Parker Kelly and O’Connor, while Jack Drury centered the fourth line with Joel Kiviranta and Zakhar Bardakov. Nic Roy missed the game with an upper-body injury, joining Artturi Lehkonen on the injured list.

With three strong lines, Bednar distributed the ice time a lot more than he was able to just a few days ago. It allowed the Avs to flex their depth both up front and on the blueline. The points were coming from all over the lineup while the top line still did its part.

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The scoring started with a nice break for MacKinnon. He battled to beat the defenseman and put it past goalie Arturs Silovs to give the Avs a 1-0 lead at 4:57. Just over three minutes later, Egor Chinakhov responded, scoring on a one-timer set up by former Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard.

The score remained knotted up at 1-1 for several minutes. But then the floodgates open. First, Malinski’s tally put the Avs ahead. After that, a power play one-timer goal from Necas that took just five seconds to score doubled the lead. And moments later, O’Connor set up Kelly from behind the net, and his teammate fired a laser into the top corner to make it 4-1.

All three of those goals came in a 1:55 span, and it gave the Avs the same 4-1 lead Pittsburgh had in the first period of their visit to Denver.

Silovs remained in the game for Pittsburgh and gave up one more goal in the second period. It was Necas again, this time scoring on a rebound following a point shot from Devon Toews. Necas’ 34th of the season gives him 12 goals in 15 games since the Olympic break.

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Colton added an empty-netter after Rickard Rakell scored for Pittsburgh. The Avs finished 1-for-2 on the PP and a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill, which included a lengthy 5-on-4 for the Pens.

Good: Quick Work On The PP

As the power play continues to take steps in the right direction, it’s nice to see the Avs get a goal so quickly off the draw. It came on the first power play chance they had.

Brock Nelson won the faceoff back to Cale Makar and the superstar defenseman skated right down the center with a clear shot on Silovs. At the last moment he sent a pass to the circle for Necas to blast a one-timer home. All of this took just five seconds, and it was a far cry from past PP goals, which often required ample work to get one in.

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The Avs have the fifth best power play in March.

Bad: Nic Roy Injury

Without knowing much about what kept Roy out of the lineup other than it being listed as upper body, it’s a shame that he couldn’t go just as Colton and O’Connor came back. Now the Avs are back to two players out with injuries.

On the bright side, it does sound like Lehkonen is getting close. Bednar has said in the past that he could be back before the end of the road trip.

The post Postgame: Avalanche Get Payback In Pittsburgh, Cruise to 6-2 Victory appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.