from Mike Chambers of the Denver Post,

The Avalanche lost superstar forward Nathan MacKinnon to injury early in Game 7 at the SAP Center, and when MacKinnon returned late in the first period against the San Jose Sharks, Colorado trailed by two goals. But the resilient Avs never quit, appeared to tie it 2-2 in the second period and rallied to get within 3-2 in a Western Conference semifinal series-deciding game they can be proud of.

They nearly forced overtime with two tremendous opportunities in the final minutes.

But in the end, the veteran Sharks were inspired by the return of captain Joe Pavelski and used a successful coach’s challenge to negate a Colorado goal and escaped their own building with a 3-2 victory and a trip to the Western Conference final.

“Our season’s over. So it’s tough. We set high expectations for ourselves. and we came up a little bit short,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It was a real good series, but they were the better team for two big portions of tonight’s game. And they won, and they deserved to win. I loved our push at the end. We had some chances to tie it, and our guys fought real hard all the way to the end.”

The Avs appeared to score three goals, but only two counted as San Jose’s coach’s challenge negated Colin Wilson’s tally early in the second period that appeared to tie it 2-2.

continued

Watch the reversed call below.