WINNIPEG — Casey Mittelstadt is a pretty low-key guy, but he couldn’t contain his excitement.
Finally, in his seventh season as a full-time professional hockey player, it was time to find out what the Stanley Cup Playoffs were all about. And it would be hard to say that Mittelstadt did anything but pass his first postseason test with a strong effort.
“I think with the energy and the atmosphere overall, I don’t know if I’ve played in a game like that in my career to be honest,” Mittelstadt said. “I loved it, though, I loved every second of it. Definitely excited for more.”
When this season began, the biggest question mark for the Avalanche was center depth behind Nathan MacKinnon. Mittelstadt and Yakov Trenin were added at the trade deadline after the first two-thirds of the season didn’t provide the answers the organization was looking for.
Toss in Ross Colton, who hadn’t played a ton of center recently before joining the Avs this past offseason, and what was once a weakness looked like a strength in Game 1 against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.
Mittelstadt scored the Avs’ final consolation goal with 30 seconds left to bring the club within one goal, but it was his work in the first 59 minutes that drew praise from his coach and built confidence for a guy making his playoff debut.
Centering the Avalanche’s second line between Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen, Mittelstadt played just 12:58 in part because there wasn’t a lot of power-play time available. He certainly helped the Avs create secondary offense beyond the top line with MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.
Colorado had a 31-13 advantage in shot attempts when Mittelstadt was on the ice (all at even strength). The Avs had 18 of the 24 shots on goal when he was out there and created 75.06% of the expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick.
That was third on the team among guys who logged more than 8:30 of ice time.
“You could tell (Mittelstadt) was all smiles on the bench before the game,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “He went out and had one of his hardest-working games for us last night. He was willing to get into the battle, win races, use his legs as a solution offensively, trying to challenge guys off the walls, beat them off the walls, drive pucks into the interior of the ice and made some nice plays.
“You get into the playoffs, you have no choice but to elevate your game. … I thought he was really good in a lot of areas.”
There was one mistake: Mittelstadt got rubbed off the puck behind the Colorado net, and Winnipeg quickly turned that into the Jets’ third goal. It was a bang-bang play that appeared to catch several Avs players off guard.
Still, all three members of Colorado’s second line scored a goal. When Bednar has needed a third guy on the top line to play with MacKinnon and Rantanen, it has usually been one of Nichushkin, Lehkonen or Jonathan Drouin.
The latter is not available this series because of a lower-body injury, but Bednar chose to put Zach Parise up there and keep this trio together. It paid off in Game 1.
Colton’s line also produced the type of blueprint goal the Avs were looking for. He forechecked the Jets into a turnover and then his linemates, Joel Kiviranta and Miles Wood, teamed up for the club’s second tally.
All of the underlying numbers were great for Colton’s line as well. Winnipeg is a strong team down the middle, one that also added a No. 2 center (Sean Monahan) ahead of the trade deadline. Beyond MacKinnon’s ability to dominate, that looked like a position with the potential for problems in this matchup.
Colton has previous playoff experience. Mittelstadt did not. The Jets’ quarter of centers weren’t bad in Game 1, but the Avs’ came away from it feeling good about their group down the middle.
“For both of those guys, I’d like to just copy and paste that game for tomorrow with a couple improvements,” Bednar said. “It just shows you what they’re capable of, and sometimes you never know until you get into big situations like this. Both are really competitive guys. Casey’s a little bit quieter (of a) competitor. Colton’s a little bit louder player that likes to get into the mix a lot. A little bit different makeup in the DNA of their game, but I liked what both guys did.”
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