Avalanche regain second wild card
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Vancouver Canucks.
Mikkel Boedker scored twice and the Colorado Avalanche regained the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference with a 3-1 victory against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Wednesday.
Boedker broke a 1-1 tie 37 seconds into the third period when he scored his second goal of the game. Andreas Martinsen scored less than five minutes later and Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves for the Avalanche (36-31-4), who moved one point ahead of the Minnesota Wild. Colorado has 11 games left in the regular season; Minnesota has 12.
Boedker, who had one goal in six games since being acquired Feb. 29 from the Arizona Coyotes, tied the game on a broken play in the first period and put the Avalanche ahead on a nice individual effort. He beat Ben Hutton wide around the right faceoff dot, pulling the puck from his backhand to his forehand as he went around the Vancouver defenseman, and then beat goaltender Ryan Miller with a quick short-side wrist shot over the glove.
Henrik Sedin scored and Miller made 31 saves for the Canucks (27-30-12), who are 10 points behind Colorado.
Nikita Tryamkin, a 6-foot-7 Russian defenseman, made his NHL debut for the Canucks less than two weeks after his season in the Kontinental Hockey League ended, and the 21-year-old had his first point on Sedin's game-opening goal 12 minutes into the first period. Tryamkin one-timed a point shot that Varlamov stopped, but the rebound was shot off a leg by Daniel Sedin and went to Henrik, who had an open net with Varlamov stranded.
Boedker, who set up Nathan MacKinnon for a shot off both posts earlier in the period, tied the game 1-1 just 66 seconds after Sedin scored. Matt Duchene stole the puck from Hutton in the corner and fed Jarome Iginla in the slot for a shot attempt that bounced off a defender and straight to a wide-open Boedker, who had an empty net on Miller's right.
Martinsen, playing in the spot of suspended Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog, made it 3-1 with a sharp-angled shot that went in off Miller by the glove on the short side.
-- By Kevin Woodley for NHL.com --
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17/03/2016 - 06:30
