Barrie's OT goal lifts Avs past Canucks
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Vancouver Canucks.Tyson Barrie scored 55 seconds into overtime Thursday to give the Colorado Avalanche a 3-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Pepsi Center.
Barrie was in front of the net when he tipped Matt Duchene's pass behind goalie Eddie Lack for the decisive goal.
Colorado (46-21-6) is in third place in the Central Division with nine games to play, six on the road. The Avalanche moved within one point (99-98) of the second-place Chicago Blackhawks (42-17-15), who lost 3-0 on the road to the Boston Bruins.
Vancouver (34-30-11) remains in the hunt for a Western Conference playoff spot with seven games remaining, six at home. They have 79 points, five behind the Phoenix Coyotes (37-26-12) for the second Western Conference wild-card position in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Coyotes defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-2 in a shootout.
The Avalanche would have clinched their first playoff appearance since 2009-10 with a win and a Coyotes loss.
Gabriel Landeskog gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead at 8:58 of the second period, but the Canucks tied the game with 1:22 left before intermission on a goal by Zack Kassian.
Landeskog, who has three goals in the past two games, was near the right post when he accepted Paul Stastny's pass from behind the net and lifted the puck over Lack's left leg for his career-high 24th goal.
Lack stopped Landeskog, who was driving to the net, earlier in the period when he stretched his left leg to knock the puck away.
Kassian, who scored the winning goal Wednesday when the Canucks defeated the Minnesota Wild, got the tying goal Thursday when he poked the puck into the net after Dan Hamhuis' shot from the left-wing boards hit Avalanche defenseman Cory Sarich and dropped to the edge of the crease.
The Canucks took a 1-0 lead at 10:50 of the first period on a power-play goal by defenseman Yannick Weber. Daniel Sedin got the play started when he passed to Nicklas Jensen in the slot. Jensen fed Weber driving from the left point towards the net for a shot into a half-open net.
The Canucks have connected for a power-play goal in five of their past six games, while the Avalanche has permitted at least one power-play goal in 11 of their past 17 games.
Duchene tied the game at 15:40 with his first goal in seven games and 23rdof the season. Cody McLeod's shot from between the faceoff circles deflected to Andre Benoit, who took a shot that Lack stopped before Duchene put in the rebound from just outside the crease.
Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa was shaken up and limped to the dressing room with 6:31 left in the second period after he took a hit from Landeskog along the boards. He returned at the start of the third period but played two shifts and didn't see the ice in the final 14:14 of regulation or overtime.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
28/03/2014 - 05:00
