Avalanche top Bruins in shootout
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs. Boston Bruins.Goalie Semyon Varlamov stopped all three shooters he faced after Nathan MacKinnon scored in the shootout and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Boston Bruins 3-2 at Pepsi Center on Wednesday.
MacKinnon scored against Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask in the first round for the only goal in the tiebreaker. Rask stopped Matt Duchene and Alex Tanguay; Varlamov made saves against Reilly Smith, David Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron.
The Avalanche (20-18-10) tied the game with 1:45 left in the third period on a goal by Ryan O'Reilly after Varlamov went to the bench for an extra attacker. O'Reilly was in the slot when he put a backhander over a prone Rask. Varlamov forced overtime by making a save against Loui Eriksson on a 2-on-1 Boston rush off a pass from Carl Soderberg in the waning seconds of regulation.
The Avalanche outshot the Bruins 4-0 in overtime and defenseman Brad Stuart rang a shot off the right post 30 seconds into the extra period.
The Bruins (25-16-7) went ahead 2-1 at 4:47 of the third period on a goal by Brad Marchand, who was back in the lineup after serving a two-game suspension. David Krejci passed across to Marchand, who was just inside the left circle when he took a shot that beat Varlamov to the stick side.
The goal came after the Bruins killed off the Avalanche's fifth power play of the game. Colorado had two shots on goal with Pastrnak off for slashing Nick Holden.
The Bruins tied the game 1-1 on Torey Krug's goal at 6:18 of the second period. Krug was just outside the crease on the left side when he knocked the rebound of Pastrnak's shot past Varlamov. The goal was Krug's first in nine games and his ninth of the season.
The Bruins kept the score tied by killing off three consecutive Avalanche power plays in the period, including two 5-on-3 advantages, the first for 21 seconds and the other for 43 seconds.
Rask took the first penalty for delay of game when he cleared the puck over the glass. Defenseman Adam McQuaid followed with another delay of game penalty and defenseman Kevan Miller hooked Cody McLeod driving to the net.
The Avalanche had a combined five shots on the power plays, but none was especially dangerous.
Colorado began the game in a 3-for-27 power-play slump. Boston started having killed 33 of 35 penalties in a nine-game stretch.
The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead with :00.4 remaining in the first period on a goal by former Bruins forward Jarome Iginla. Tanguay took a shot from the left side and Matt Duchene, while he was in front of the net with Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, deflected the puck to Iginla at the bottom of the right circle. Iginla scored into a half-open net and video replay confirmed the puck crossed the goal line in time.
The goal was Iginla's team-leading 14th of the season and the 574th of his NHL career, moving him past Hall of Famer Mike Bossy into sole possession of 20th place on the all-time list.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
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22/01/2015 - 07:05
