DENVER — A scant 1:49 remained on the clock. The Edmonton Oilers, down to their last gasp, were busy at their bench mapping out a crucial, offensive zone draw.&nbsp;



The score was 7-6.



White pom-poms danced in the Mile High air. And Ball Arena roared when Russell Crowe popped up on the screen, in his full “Gladiator” garb to ask: “Are you not entertained?”



Really, how could you not be?



Fourteen goals. Four goaltenders. One controversial video review. Enough high speed fly-bys on end-to-end rushes that the broadcast should have borrowed the sound effects from the latest Top Gun sequel.



Avalanche 8, Oilers 6. No, seriously, that was the score.



“It’s the pace we expected,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “No question.”



If you thought the Battle of Alberta was drunk, the Western Conference final just said: “Hold my beer.” Game 2 is Thursday night.<div class="injected-ad injected-video" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="0" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="145"></div>



Game 1 was a track meet played on sharp metal blades, one of those Olympic speed skating free-for-all relays – but with a handful of the very best hockey players on the planet.



Connor McDavid matched Cale Makar’s three points. Nathan MacKinnon scored on an electrifying rush. The Oilers somehow found a way to turn what was a 7-3 blowout into one bounce away. As Bob Cole surely would have said: “Everything is happening.”



Everything was happening in the crease, too. Neither netminder made it to the midway point of Game 1. Mike Smith was chased after allowing six goals on 25 shots; Darcy Kuemper followed minutes later with what Colorado called an “upper-body” injury.



And so, on a night when Edmonton struggled to defend and seemingly had little answer for the Avalanche attack and their sustained assault, coach Jay Woodcroft was not-to-subtle when he keyed in on the Oilers’ opening in this series in his postgame press conference.<div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="1" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="159"></div>



“We scored six goals on their goaltending tandem tonight in their building,” Woodcroft said.



He mentioned it four times in a six-minute media availability. Four. Times.&nbsp;



“I thought today, defensively, we were sloppy. But I’m going to go back to the six goals we scored on that team,” Woodcroft said. “I don’t know if they can be happy with that. That’s up for them to figure out.”&nbsp;



Nothing looms larger heading into Game 2 than Kuemper’s injury. When asked whether Kuemper was day-to-day or could be out longer, Bednar only replied: “We’ll see.”



The margins are thin in the Stanley Cup playoffs, even more so in a third-round series loaded with megawatt star power on both sides. Kuemper missing any time might be enough to tip the scales. The Avalanche know first-hand: they toppled Nashville and St. Louis after each of their starters went down.<div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="2" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="145"></div>



Pavel Francouz entered in a tough spot in the second period, but allowed three goals on 21 shots in just his ninth career postseason appearance as the Avalanche nearly coughed up a four-goal lead. Francouz indicated that Kuemper notified Bednar and the bench a few minutes before he was forced to leave the game.



“I think I had one or two shifts to kind of stretch in the background and get ready, so it wasn’t like ‘Go’,” Francouz explained. “I thought there was time to stretch and time to put my thoughts together and go on.”



The Avalanche might respond and say Smith had his own troubles to worry about. And that would be true, except he has bounced back so well in these playoffs that the Oilers probably aren’t giving it a second thought.<div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="3" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="135"></div>



Smith, 40, has an .814 save percentage in Game 1s this postseason. Not surprisingly, the Oilers have lost all three Game 1s now. But Smith has a sparkling .957 save percentage in every other game of the first two rounds.



“Obviously, we don’t like Game 1s,” Smith said, with a laugh. “That being said, we’re a resilient group that doesn’t just roll over and die. That’s an encouraging part. When you’re giving up touchdowns in the last two series in Game 1, I think that’s not a good sign. But it shows a lot of our team that when we’re down, we’re not out of the fight, and we continue to battle right to the end and play for each other.”



History says Smith will rebound. History also says the Avalanche have suffered injuries to their goaltenders at the worst possible times.<div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="4" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="142"></div>



Remember when Philipp Grubauer went down in the bubble in Edmonton three years ago? Francouz manned the fort for five games before he also succumbed to injury. That left Michael Hutchinson to fend for himself, a gift for the Dallas Stars.



Kuemper, 32, also struggled to stay upright each of his last two seasons in Arizona. He’s had better luck in Colorado to this point. He missed time this season with COVID-19, and a four-game spell with an upper-body injury in early December, before a fluke stick snuck through the bars on his mask in Round 1 against Nashville that caused an eye injury.



Bednar expressed confidence in Francouz in his postgame remarks. With a .916 save percentage this season, he was one of the better backups in the league.



“Great demeanor, right?” Bednar said. “Calm, cool, collected guy. Great teammate. Guys love playing in front of him. He had to come in in the Nashville series, did a great job for us. He’s been staying ready, putting in the work with Jussi [Parkkila], our goalie coach, and trying to stay sharp and crisp.”<div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="5" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="184"></div>



There are many questions to answer after Game 1. Can the Oilers find a way to defend better? Tuesday may have been eerily similar to their Battle of Alberta opener, as Connor McDavid said. But as Woodcroft pointed out: the Avalanche are a different animal than the Flames.



And can Francouz carry the Avs?



“I have a lot of faith in him. So does our team,” Bednar said. “Having a guy like that is obviously key. See through the playoffs how many teams are onto their second goalie and some teams – their third – and trying to survive. You’ve got to have capable goaltending from more than one guy, and we have it.”



We’ll see about that.