Kiszla: How Avs third-string goalie Michael Hutchinson became unlikeliest miracle worker in Denver sports since Tim Tebow and saved his team from NHL playoff extinction

In a nasty year that dares us all to hide under the cov­ers until these wretched 12 months mer­ci­ful­ly end, Michael Hutchin­son instead did what plug­gers do. He refused to let 2020 get him down.

The Avalanche beat Dal­las 4–1 Wednes­day to come all the way back from the brink and force a Game 7 in this NHL play­off series. But the cra­zi­est part of this wild come­back sto­ry is the 30-year-old jour­ney­man between the pipes.

“Who, Hutchy?” said Avs super­star Nathan MacKinnon.

After win­ning back-to-back elim­i­na­tion games for Col­orado, he’s our Hutchy now.

Hutchin­son grinned at all the NHL hon­chos who insist­ed he would nev­er amount to any­thing spe­cia, then wait­ed qui­et­ly in a cor­ner of the Avalanche dress­ing room until coach Jared Bed­nar, with nowhere else to turn, asked his third-string goalie to save this team from being boot­ed from the NHL bubble.

“I love it. Not just for Hutch, but for all the guys that don’t have an easy path,” Bed­nar said.

This litte mir­a­cle by Hutchy and the Avs has tak­en the shine off Dal­las. The Stars are no longer twin­kling. They’re choking.

A native of Ontario, Hutchin­son could have just as eas­i­ly been ing Game 6 on his cell phone in a Tim Hor­tons some­where in Cana­da, wash­ing down a dozen choco­late-cov­ered Tim­bits with a steam­ing hot dou­ble-dou­ble, instead of star­ring between the pipes for the Avalanche in a dire win-or-go-home situation.

“The whole entire sit­u­a­tion … is absurd and sur­re­al,” Hutchin­son said.

Down 3–1 in a best-of-sev­en series? No prob­lem for teams that call the Pep­si Cen­ter home.

Play­off Mir­a­cles are Us. On the court. Or the ice.

In case of emer­gency, break glass and call Jamal. Or Hutchy. Col­orado sports fans nev­er sweat the small stuff. Or the big stuff. Avalanche and Nuggets faith­ful have stom­achs of iron and hearts of stone.

What? Us worry?

Just as Jamal Mur­ray stub­born­ly refused to let the Nuggets’ bub­ble burst, lead­ing team­mates to three con­sec­u­tive vic­to­ries to close out Utah in the NBA play­offs, Hutchy and the Avalanche are fix­ing to leave the Stars cry­ing in a heart­break hotel up in Alberta.

Hutchi­son is num­ber — give me a sec, while I grab an Avalanche ros­ter — is No. 35 in your pro­gram. He’s also the most unlike­ly sports mir­a­cle work­er in Col­orado since Tim Tebow was win­ning foot­ball games in ways only angels could explain.

“A lot of hock­ey is being in the right place at the right time and tak­ing advan­tage of the oppor­tu­ni­ties that come,” Hutchin­son said.

He has grabbed a broom and cleaned up a mess in goal, after Philipp Grubauer went down with an injury in Game 1 of this series and Pavel Fran­couz suf­fered a severe­ly bruised ego  dent­ed by a bar­rage of Dal­las scores.

Hutchy has saved the Avs’ bacon. And know what’s cool? He acts as if it’s no big deal, as if he was going to grab a cof­fee, so he brought a bag a dough­nuts back for MacK­in­non and the boys, as well.

I asked Hutchin­son, who’s as relaxed as a nap on the sofa, the per­son that is crazy excit­ed for his success.

“My wife. She’s def­i­nite­ly excit­ed. The games are a huge stress on her, so she usu­al­ly gets a few friends over to com­fort her, ” said Hutchin­son, who stopped 27 Dal­las shots.

A jour­ney­man with so many for­ward­ing address­es that Christ­mas cards from 2015 are still look­ing for him, Hutchin­son was a com­pe­tent back­up and good lock­er-room dude for Win­nipeg, Flori­da and Toron­to before arriv­ing in Col­orado at the trade dead­line in late February.

On the night of Game 4, after a dis­heart­en­ing  5–4 loss put the Avs one defeat from elim­i­na­tion, Bed­nar grabbed Hutchin­son in the team hotel and told him to get ready to start his first NHL play­off game with­in 24 hours.

“He was pret­ty calm. He was like, ‘OK.’ He just looked at me mat­ter of fact and said he’d be ready,” Bed­nar said.

In the cur­rent Mt. Rush­more of Den­ver sports, the heroes are guys we all know and love by their nick­name: Jok­er, the Von­ster, Chuck Naz­ty and …

Hutchy?

Darn skip­py.

Did Hutchin­son ever wor­ry he’d nev­er get his shot?

“Numer­ous times in my career,” said Hutchin­son, who bounced between the minor leagues and the NHL. “My career has been a long jour­ney … There’s always moments when you get sent down that you think you’re nev­er going to play anoth­er NHL game.”

Here’s to the dream­ers that don’t let any­thing drag ’em down.

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