Colorado
Deion Sanders’ Colorado stomps on Oregon logo prior to Pac-12 battle
Colorado couldn’t arrive in Oregon without making a statement.
A video was posted on Well off Media’s YouTube, which was founded by Deion Sanders Jr., of Colorado players stomping on the Oregon logo at midfield to the backdrop of eerie music before the highly anticipated Pac-12 Saturday afternoon game.
It’s a statement that the Ducks are unlikely to forget without the want to make their own against the hot-start team led by Deion Sanders.
The matchup is making for one of the biggest of the weekend with both teams holding a 3-0 record and ranked top 20.
Colorado’s turnover throne has also made an appearance once again after debuting in the second week against Nebraska as a seat for any player who causes the mishap.
The trek to the Oregon logo comes at a bit of a surprise after the Buffalo’s quarterback Shedeur Sanders — son of Deion — had a bone to pick with Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule two weeks ago over him and the Cornhuskers standing on the Colorado logo before the game.
“It was extremely personal, you go out there and warm up and you’ve got the head coach from the other team standing in the middle of the Buff,” Sanders said after the 36-14 victory. “It’s OK if a couple of players do it, it’s fine, just enjoy the scenery.
“But when you’ve got the whole team trying to disrespect it, I’m not going for that at all. I went in there and disrupted it.
“The Buffaloes mean a lot to me — personally — and that’s what I was saying in pregame. And that’s when I knew it was extreme disrespect. The coach said a lot of things about my pops, about the program. I don’t respect that because you’re hating on another man. … All respect was gone for them and their program.
“The respect level ain’t there because he disrespected us first.”
Deion and Colorado have been the biggest story since the start of the season, notably when millions of people stayed awake in the early hours of the morning to watch the team beat rival Colorado State in double overtime in the previous week.
On the other hand, Oregon has steamrolled through their first three games with Heisman Trophy contender Bo Nix under center.
Colorado
Canadiens defeat sluggish Avalanche in shootout, snap Colorado’s six-game win streak
The Colorado Avalanche dug deep, fueled by some officiating-driven anger, and authored a wild, remarkable comeback two nights ago in an electric evening at Ball Arena.
This was not that.
The Montreal Canadiens ended Colorado’s six-game winning streak with a 2-1 shootout victory Saturday at Ball Arena. Cole Caufield and Kirby Dach scored for the Canadiens in the shootout.
There are some 2-1 thrillers, with great saves, end-to-end action and high drama.
This was not that.
“We were just OK,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We were good defensively, responsible, checked hard against a team that’s tops in the league right now in creating offense. But we didn’t do a good enough job creating offense ourselves.”
Maybe there was a letdown after the crazy 6-5 comeback win Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres, but this contest felt like it was played at a slower pace at times. The Avs jumped out to an early lead and played well enough for the first 40 minutes, but also looked far from a crisp, surging outfit that has collected so many positive results in the past month.
At one point, the Avalanche had just seven shots on net across more than 35 minutes of play. The Avs created more scoring opportunities than Montreal, but also missed the net on several of their best looks.
Colorado had scored at least four goals in each of the six games during the winning streak.
“We had a lot of zone time. We just didn’t create a lot of chances,” Bednar said. “Not enough of a shot mentality. That attack mentality just wasn’t there. Seemed like we were really selective on the shots we wanted to take.”
Montreal was playing the second half of a back-to-back and started rookie Jakub Dobes in net. Dobes, 23, was making his second career NHL start and stopped 22 of 23 Colorado shots. He had a 34-save shutout against the defending champion Florida Panthers in his first start.
The Avs are now 24-15-1 this season as they reach the midpoint Monday night against those Panthers. They will certainly need to be better with a significant step up in competition.
Mackenzie Blackwood didn’t have a lot of work, but he made three excellent saves when it was still a 1-0 game to give the Avs a chance. He and Scott Wedgewood have been outstanding since arriving in late November and early December. This is a game Colorado probably would have been chasing, given its lack of offense, but the new goalies have given this club a new pathway to win games.
Caulfield scored for Montreal with 6:35 remaining in the third period after an Avs turnover led to a 2-on-1. The Canadiens, who struggled to generate much offense for a lot of this contest, were pushing for an equalizer and the better of the play for the first time in the game leading up to Caufield’s goal.
The Avalanche scored the lone goal of the opening period on its second power play of the contest. Mikko Rantanen cut to the net from the right flank and Nathan MacKinnon found him. Rantanen directed the puck into the net with his foot at 9:01 of the period.
It was Rantanen’s 23rd goal of the season. The guy they call “Moose” scored a goal in his fourth straight game, and now has a 13-game point streak. That ties the longest in the NHL this season and is one shy of the longest in his career.
“He’s been phenomenal,” Bednar said. “He’s one of those one-shot goal scorers. When you need a big goal, you’ve got a guy that can score from all kinds of areas on that side of the ice.”
FOOTNOTES: Avs coach Jared Bednar said goalie Scott Wedgewood does not have a high-ankle sprain on the team’s pregame show before this contest. Bednar hopes that Wedgewood is only going to miss 1-2 weeks after falling awkwardly on Buffalo forward Zach Benson in his crease Thursday night.
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