Must win, no doubt about it.
Francois Beauchemin said exactly that Friday regarding the Avalanche's game Saturday against Minnesota at the Pepsi Center.
"I think we have to approach it as a must-win situation," he said. "We have eight games left, we know where we're at, it's a must-win situation. We've lost a couple games to these guys already and this is a big one."
Guess so, especially after Thursday's third-period meltdown against Philadelphia, which scored two goals 19 seconds apart with under six minutes left in regulation before adding an empty-net goal in a 4-2 win.
The Avalanche (38-32-4) trail the Wild (36-28-11) by three points in the race for the second wild card playoff position in the Western Conference following that loss and Minnesota's 6-2 rout of Calgary.
"These are exciting games to play," Beauchemin said. "Everybody's watching us and saying we're in a tough situation, but we have to take it as a positive thing and just get excited and get motivated by it. We control our own destiny. We win and we're right back in it. We all know that if we lose we put ourselves in a tough situation, but it's in our hands right now."
The Avalanche have eight games left and the Wild seven. Colorado has a one-game lead (34-33) in regulation and overtime wins, the first tiebreaker if it comes to that, but a loss Saturday would be a severe blow.
"We knew that it's a huge game regardless of what happened (Thursday)," said Erik Johnson, who had nine shots in 26:58 of ice time but whose turnover led to the Flyers' go-ahead goal. "Obviously we'd be much happier going into that game only back a point, but there's a handful of games left in the season and we're going to make the most of them, and it starts Saturday."
The Avalanche lost three of the previous four games against the Wild this season and nine of the past 11. They defeated the Wild 2-1 in overtime on Dec. 7 after squandering a late 1-0 lead.
That's been the story of their season, an inability to hold leads. Colorado has lost eight times after taking a lead into the third period, six in regulation. The trouble started opening night against the Wild when they turned a 4-1 third-period lead into a stinging 5-4 defeat.
The Avalanche have had the lead or been tied in the third period in every one of their past five losses.
"The good thing is we have a chance to get back to (being) one point behind them and having one game in hand," coach Patrick Roy said. "That's what we should have in mind and that's what our focus should be about how we want to respond. We had a meeting (Friday) talking about not looking at the big picture but more looking short term and making sure we're ready for the start of the game.
"I truly believe in this team. I like the way we've been approaching every game, we're ready for every game, we have good starts. Now it's for us to play that full 60 minutes with the same intensity from the start to the end."
The Avalanche are still without their two leading scorers, centers Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon, both out because of knee injuries so others need to pick up the offensive slack.
John Mitchell, promoted to the third line because of their absence, gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in the third period Thursday, his first goal in 13 games.
Not that it held up. Johnson was upset with himself for the turnover that led to Claude Giroux's goal that put the Flyers ahead 3-2 with 5:24 to play. But no defender was close to Giroux when he corralled the rebound of Wayne Simmonds' shot and circled to his right before scoring.
"We were setting up for the one timer in the offensive zone," Johnson said. "I just tried to chip it down the wall and Simmonds made a nice play and pulled it to the middle. They got a shot there and we backchecked perfect into the slot and we might have over-backchecked a bit and (Giroux) knocked it in. I might have played one of the best games of my career, one little play can happen like that and be the difference."
Radko Gudas scored with 5:43 to go to tie the game while the Avalanche's fourth line, which played sparingly, was on the ice. First-round pick Mikko Rantanen, who's centering the line, totaled four minutes of ice time through two periods and finished at 7:48.
"I guess I don't trust Mikko yet and that makes me sometimes nervous," Roy said. "If I have a lot of faceoffs in our zone it's hard for me to play four lines. Sometimes it's just a matter of trust. I guess with time it'll be there. It's a playoff game for us.
"It's not about how much ice time I'm going to give to the guys, it's about having the guys that I think should be on the ice at that moment and whom I'm trusting and have confidence in. Mikko's young and I'm sure eventually he'll earn my confidence."
If that's the case, why call him up in the first place?
Roy said no lineup changes for Saturday.
FORWARDS Shawn Matthias - Carl Soderberg - Gabriel Landeskog Mikkel Boedker - Mikhail Grigorenko - Blake Comeau Andreas Martinsen - John Mitchell - Jarome Iginla Cody McLeod - Mikko Rantanen - Jack Skille
DEFENSE Francois Beauchemin - Erik Johnson Nick Holden - Tyson Barrie Chris Bigras - Zach Redmond
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Calvin Pickard