He was no longer a hockey player. He was a speed skater.
The former Olympian was now Dan Jansen or something, chasing his dream — no, like, literally chasing.
“At first, I was like — there’s no way this is going to go in after he flipped it (down ice),” said Erik Johnson, Colorado’s Minnesota kid, of Thursday’s empty-net shot-attempt. “And then I see it take a turn, and I’m going – I got to get on my horse here. Originally, I didn’t think I was going to get there. It kind of slowed down, and I got there right at the last second.”
With 1:32 left in Thursday’s Game 1 playoff matchup, and the Avalanche down 4-3, the defenseman Johnson saved the game with a save unlike any other — diving toward the empty net and knocking away the puck, while knocking the net and stopping play.
On Friday, surely the talk of the town will be Paul Statsny.
But Johnson, playing against his childhood team, kept the Avs in the game, allowing Statsny to be the hero.
And here’s what I loved about it: Johnson had been playing pretty poorly. He made a dumb pass earlier that led to a Minnesota Wild goal. He looked like the Blues’ Erik Johnson out there. But the theme of this magical team is finding ways to win. Patrick Roy says it every day, probably in his sleep, too. And Johnson was a microcosm of his team — played just an OK game but clawed and gnawed and found a way at the end.
“My first game, I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous,” said the No. 1 overall pick in 2006, who was making his first postseason appearance. “In the second period I got more comfortable. The biggest thing was I wasn’t moving my feet early, but I did that in the third, creating more chances and got the game under my belt.”
I don’t think the Avs think they should have won this one. But they did, 5-4, thanks to Stastny’s game-tying goal (assisted by Johnson) and then a Stastny game-winner, as the Pespi Center fizzed and overflowed with joy. Even the Nuggets’ Ty Lawson, wearing an Avs sweater in the first row, pounded on the glass like he was just Ty from Stapleton, a Denverite caught up in the night.
“We believe in ourselves,” Roy said, “and sometimes you’re not playing your best game, but a quality of our team is we found a way to win this game. And that’s what you want in the playoffs.
“I like how resilient we were. You can have all types of plans, but if your team is resilient, that’s the key.”
Colorado was off. The Avs seemed like they were playing not to lose for stretches. The Avs were poor on the power play, they looked lost scrambling on the penalty kill, they made some head-scratching decisions and Brad Malone is probably having flashbacks of that other Minnesota Erik, Erik Haula, zooming past him for a goal.
No one admits they want to play from behind, but it’s as if the Avs play sharper when they are. They did it again Thursday night, just like they did so many times this Avalanche April. And maybe May at this point.
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/hochman
