Avalanche avenge rout by beating Oilers
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Edmonton Oilers.Redemption for the Colorado Avalanche came in the form of a hard fought 4-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday at Pepsi Center.
The Avalanche were steamrolled 8-2 the last time the teams met, Dec. 5 in Edmonton.
Ryan O'Reilly and Maxime Talbot scored 3:28 apart late in the second period to give the Avalanche a 3-2 lead, and Matt Duchene sealed the deal by scoring into an empty net with 1.1 seconds left in regulation to complete a three-point performance.
O'Reilly, who had one goal in the previous 12 games, tied the game with 5:00 remaining in the middle period by completing a pretty passing play with Nathan MacKinnon and Duchene.
Duchene was in the right circle when he passed to MacKinnon, who immediately fed O'Reilly cutting to the net on the left side. O'Reilly redirected the puck behind goalie Devan Dubnyk.
The Avalanche took their first lead of the game with 1:32 remaining on Talbot's shorthanded goal, which came 31 seconds after Colorado's Patrick Bordeleau was penalized for interference. Marc-Andre Cliche led a 2-on-1 rush into the Oilers' end following an Edmonton turnover. Cliche skated down right wing and passed across to Talbot, who went to his backhand and slid the puck by Dubnyk's right skate.
The Avalanche enjoyed a 17-5 shots advantage in the first period, but the Oilers took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Taylor Hall, who sped down the right side and beat goalie Semyon Varlamov to the glove side with a wrist shot for his fourth goal in two games against him this season.
The Avalanche tied the game at 1:07 of the second period on a goal by Tyson Barrie during a 5-on-3 power play.
The Oilers' Sam Gagner was assessed a major penalty for cross-checking and a game misconduct at 18:32 of the first period for striking Paul Stastny in the face after a faceoff. Hall was given an unsportsmanlike penalty at the 20-minute mark.
Duchene fed Barrie in the right circle for a shot that sailed past Dubnyk's glove for the Avalanche's second power-play goal in 38 chances covering parts of 13 games. The Oilers killed off the final 2:25 of Gagner's penalty after Hall returned to the ice.
The Oilers went ahead 2-1 at 12:10 of the period when Hall stole the puck from defenseman Erik Johnson after a poor pass by defense partner Jan Hejda. Hall passed to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who scored from right in front.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
20/12/2013 - 07:00
