Except for hard core Denver Broncos fans who only follow the National Football League, the last week in April and first two weeks of May have provided some of the greatest sports excitement in Colorado history. The Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets put themselves in play-off series at the same time. Here’s what happened.
On April 11, the Avalanche began the Stanley Cup play-offs against the Calgary Flames, who finished first in the NHL Western Division. Colorado finished 5th in the Central and made the play-offs as a wild card team. The Avs beat the Flames in five games, with two Colorado wins coming in overtime. The series ended on April 19. In an unusual year, all four NHL wild card teams, including the Avalanche, advanced to the second round.
Colorado needed to wait until April 26 to meet the San Jose Sharks. It took the Sharks seven games to eliminate the Las Vegas Golden Knights, in only their second year in the league. The last two San Jose wins also required overtime.
The NBA playoffs began for the Denver Nuggets April 3 against the San Antonio Spurs. Denver finished the regular season in second place in the Western Division with a record of 54 wins and 28 losses. The spurs were in 7th place with a record of 48 and 24. The Nuggets won the best of seven series 4 to 3 on April 27.
Now the table was set for two of Denver’s four professional sports teams to both be in the second round of their respective play-offs during the same two week period. The week of April 29 brought four play-off home games to the Mile High City, an historical first. The teams share the Pepsi Center in downtown Denver, keeping the crews very busy covering and uncovering the hockey ice with the wood basketball floor.
The Denver Nuggets got this exciting home town playoff week off to a great start at “The Can” as Pepsi Center is known, on Monday, April 29 against the Portland Trailblazers. Portland had finished the regular season in third place with a record of 53 and 29, just one game behind the Nuggets. The Pepsi Center crowd cheered the Nuggets on to victory, 121-113.
Meanwhile, the Sharks and Avs played their first two games in San Jose, with the teams each winning one game, initially depriving San Jose of its home ice advantage. On Tuesday April 30, game three moved to the Pepsi Center. Unfortunately, even the extremely large, loud and enthusiastic home fans couldn’t propel the Avs to a win in game three. The Sharks led 2 to1.
Wednesday night brought more Mile High hoop action. The Nuggets hosted the Trailblazers in game 2 with Portland knotting up the series, beating the Nuggets 97 to 90.
Thursday, the ice returned and the Avalanche were able to even up the series once again, beating San Jose 3 to 0. The games now would alternate between San Jose and Denver until one team could win 4 games. San Jose won at home on May 4, beating Colorado 3 to 2. Returning to Denver on May 6, Colorado forced a 7th and deciding game by beating the Sharks 4 to 3 in overtime. Home ice and unbelievable goal keeping (reminiscent of Tommy, the deaf and blind pinball wizard) were too much for the Avalanche and their season ended May 8 on the road.
The Nuggets took their young team to Portland to play game three of their series on May 3. Denver came up just short in overtime, succumbing 137 to 140. Now down 2 games to 1, the Nuggets needed a tough-to-get road playoff win. And they delivered in another close game, 116 to 112, again tying the series. Denver won game 5 at home decisively 124 to 98 and led the series 3 games to 2. The Nuggets had the opportunity to finish the series in Portland, but came up short, 119 to 108. Still, they could win the series at home in Denver on May 12, but were out-played in the third and fourth quarters, losing 100 to 96 and allowing Portland to move on to the Western Conference finals.
Even though both the Nuggets and the Avalanche failed to advance to their conference finals, each team had a remarkable season. They are gifted with young, strong, enthusiastic players, experienced coaches and loyal fans. The Avalanche and Nuggets both promise strong futures. They gave their followers great energy and excitement and one incredible week of home play-off action. Even those who weren’t regular season fans stayed up way past their bed times to watch the late West coast games. Can’t wait for next year.
And for those die hard Broncos fans I mentioned, the first pre-season game is August 1, only 80 days away.