Avs top Sharks 4-3 in shootout
All of a sudden, the Colorado Avalanche has regained home-ice advantage at the Pepsi Center.After
losing eight of its first 11 games at home, the Avalanche won their fourth in a
row at home and fifth in the past six on home ice Tuesday night with a 4-3
shootout victory over the San Jose Sharks.
"We started off so terrible at home and we still have
a lot of ground to make up," center
Matt Duchene said.
It
didn't hurt the cause to get involved in a shootout, where the Avalanche has
gone 5-0 this season.
Rookie
Gabriel Landeskog's goal against San
Jose goalie Antti Niemi in the fifth
round proved decisive when Avs goalie Semyon
Varlamov stopped the Sharks' Brad
Winchester. Milan Hejduk
converted for Colorado in the first round and San Jose's Joe Pavelski scored in the third round.
"I kind of had my mind made up already before I
grabbed the puck," said Landeskog, who
beat Niemi low to the blocker side. "I
kind of closed my eyes and shot it. I've been struggling a little bit to put
the puck in the net, but the main focus is to win hockey games. To score a goal
and win a hockey game feels great."
Varlamov
has allowed just two goals on 16 shots in shootouts this season and the
Avalanche has won 16 of 17 shootouts going back to December 2009.
„Every shot is very tough in a shootout," said Varlamov, who stopped 27 shots through 65 minutes. "I think it is a more emotional game
for the (shooter) and for the goalie. I just try and see what is going to
happen. This is a huge win for us."
It
appeared the Avalanche would secure the win in regulation until Patrick Marleau, who had a hat trick
against Colorado when the teams met Nov. 30, cashed in Logan Couture's pass with 22 seconds remaining and Niemi on the
bench for a sixth attacker.
"The goal that we have up at the end, you have to
give a little credit to San Jose. They made a nice play," Avalanche coach Joe
Sacco said. "But our forwards
overextended their shifts there. They had an opportunity to change, and they
should have, and they got caught out there too long.“
"But getting the extra point was critical. We did
play such a strong game. Had we not gotten the extra point, it would have been
a little different mood in the locker room. It's one game; we don't want to get
ahead of ourselves, but certainly when we play like that, when we play with
that urgency and that consistency, we can get some good results."
Daniel Winnik and Duchene scored third-period goals 5:20 apart to give
the Avalanche a 3-2 lead.
"Giving up a lead in the third was tough, but we
battled back to grab a point,"
said Sharks captain Joe Thornton,
whose team is in a 2-5-2 skid. "The
effort was great tonight start to finish. You know we have been competing hard.
I think as long as you keep on competing, you are going to have your peaks and
valleys and you just have to kind of ride them out. There are a lot of good
signs right now."
Winnik,
with his first goal in 18 games, tied the game 2-2 at 6:31 with a wraparound
after Niemi made a save on Erik
Johnson's shot from the right point. Duchene broke the tie at 11:51 on a
power play with San Jose's Colin White
in the penalty box for holding. Hejduk passed from the right circle out to
Duchene, who moved to the inner edge of the left circle and blasted the puck
over Niemi's right shoulder.
"Hedgie just found me in the seam there and I was
able to find some room,"
Duchene said. "I stopped it and put
my head up and just looked for some daylight. (Landeskog) was doing a great job
in front screening and I don't think the goalie saw it."
The
Avalanche had gone 1-for-23 on power plays in the previous seven games and was
in a 4-for-46 drought covering 14 games.
Sharks
defenseman Dan Boyle had a goal and
an assist in the second period to give his team a 2-1 lead through 40 minutes.
Boyle set up Jamie McGinn for a rare
power-play goal and put the Sharks in front with his second goal of the season
and first since Nov. 7.
The
Sharks were in 0-for-15 and 1-for-25 slumps with the extra man when Colorado's TJ Galiardi went off for high-sticking
at 1:25. The power play was winding down when Boyle kept the puck from exiting
the Avalanche zone, wheeled to his right into the high slot and fired a shot
that McGinn redirected past Varlamov at 3:16.
Boyle
scored at 13:39 after Pavelski's shot deflected up the slot. It came to Boyle
between the circles and he didn't waste any time ripping it into the net.
Avalanche
rookie defenseman Stefan Elliott
scored with 16.6 seconds remaining in the first period with a spectacular
coast-to-coast rush. He began at his own goal line, sprinted up the right side
of the ice and beat Niemi to the far post with a shot from the top of the right
circle.
"It's a great individual play," Sacco said. "There's
not much else to say. We talk about going D to D and moving the puck up to the
forwards, but that play works, too."
-by
Rick Sadowski for NHL.com-
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
14/12/2011 - 09:26
