Avs extend season-opening win streak
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Colorado Avalanche's season is still perfect. The Toronto Maple Leafs' is not.
PA Parenteau's goal 2:30 into the third period broke a tie and gave the Avalanche a 2-1 victory against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game road trip.
Jamie McGinn raced down left wing and zipped a pass across the slot that hit Parenteau's skate as he crashed the crease a half-step ahead of defenseman Jake Gardiner. The puck went past Jonathan Bernier into the net; the goal was allowed to stand after video review.
The rest of the night belonged to goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who stopped 27 shots and allowed only Joffrey Lupul's second-period goal. Varlamov has been in goal for all three of Colorado's games this season and has allowed three goals while helping the Avalanche to a 3-0-0 start, the first time the franchise has started a season with three consecutive victories since moving from Quebec in 1995.
The Avalanche, who also got a goal from defenseman Cory Sarich, won their first road game of the season after winning four of their 24 games away from Pepsi Center last season.
Bernier finished with 31 saves. The Maple Leafs lost for the first time in four games this season.
Each team had chances in the first period, but neither scored. Varlamov stopped all 12 Toronto shots, and Colorado was unable to get any of its 10 shots past Bernier. His best stop was a glove save on Gabriel Landeskog from the slot near the middle of the period.
Lupul opened the scoring at 13:12 of the second period through sheer persistence. Varlamov stopped Carter Ashton's shot from the high slot but couldn't cover the puck. Lupul dug the puck away from the goaltender and jammed it over the goal line for his second of the season.
The goal marked the first time this season the Avalanche trailed in a game.
Colorado tied it at 16:39 on a goal from an unlikely source. Sarich, a defenseman who's spent his career focused more on preventing goals than scoring them, carried the puck from the point into the lower right circle in the Toronto zone, where he rocketed a quick wrist shot over the shoulder of a surprised Bernier. It was Sarich's first goal since Jan. 10, 2012, when he scored against the New Jersey Devils while playing for the Calgary Flames.
It also was the first goal of the season by a Colorado defenseman.
-- by NHL.com --
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09/10/2013 - 04:15
