Colorado vs Vegas: Avalanche back in the series lead

Vegas managed to get two wins on their own ice, allowing them to tie the West Division final, 2-2. Who will come out on top in this encounter? We predict that Jared Bednar’s side will be closer to the win.

It seemed as if the entirety of this playoff run was going to be a very easy ride for Colorado. Not only had they not suffered a single loss in their opening six games, but they had won all their games by a combined score of 30-10. In Game 2 of the West Division Finals, Vegas put up a decent fight against the Avalanche, but Jared Bednar’s team still won in overtime, 3-2. There was a feeling that the series would end at T-Mobile Arena, but there the Denver club unexpectedly suffered two defeats, and in the last game was defeated by a teammate 1-5, so now the score in the confrontation is equal, 2-2.

Vegas have had a very uneven playoff run, alternating successful stretches with outright failures. So it was in the first round of the Stanley Cup, when they led the score against Minnesota, 3-1, but allowed the Wild to bring it to the seventh game, where the Knights still turned out stronger. Now Peter DeBoer’s boys are playing under the same system. They lost their two starting games 1-7 and 2-3, but won 3-2 and 5-1 on their home ice, bringing the intrigue back to the series. Another question is how long Marc-Andre Fleury, who again shows the reliability of his best years, but now he is 36 years old and his partners do not always help him.

In the West Division finals, the home team is the only one to win so far, so we can expect Colorado to succeed in this upcoming battle. The Avalanche have been very modest in their two games at T-Mobile Arena, where they suffered two losses, 2-3 and 1-5, but even more noteworthy is the shot-to-goal statistics, which are in favour of the Knights, 78-38. Jared Bednar’s team can’t afford to be so passive on home ice, so they need to pick up the pace. As a result, we suggest betting on Colorado to win with odds of about 1.62.

The encounter between Colorado and Vegas is expected to be productive, despite the fact that both teams have a lot of performers of the highest level in the offensive line, but there are serious problems with the defence. That’s why in their four previous head-to-head encounters, the opponents combined for 24 goals (6.00 average per game), which is a very respectable benchmark for the playoffs. Moreover, now the Knights finally started to play on offence and the Avalanche have no right to play on defence, so Total Over 5.5 pucks at odds close to 2.19 seems to be the best option for the prediction.

Surprisingly, the Vegas defence managed to neutralize the leaders of Colorado in recent games, which seemed completely impossible. That’s why now the Avalanche will have to actively attack the other lines, and special expectations can be placed on Andre Burakovsky, who is having a great season. In 61 games in total, including the regular season, the Swedish forward has already scored 47 points (19 goals + 28 assists), which is a very solid figure. With that in mind, we should take a closer look at Andre Burakovsky’s Total Over 0.5 point at odds of around 1.80.