Avalanche Recap - 3 Games, 2 Wins, 1 Loss

Lets get the loss out of the way by saying: yes, we should have beat Anaheim and played rather ridiculously according my my snobby, high-nosed standards. We did play, however, like we have all year, which is to say we underachieved.

Moving on to the Calgary game. Obviously we won this game because the title says two wins (which also means the next game I discuss was a victory). We somehow cannot manage to win against teams we consistently need to beat in order to gain ground... but we manage to be the thorn in the side of any team trying to gain ground itself. So the Flames, who were hot and crawling up the points ladder met their maker, but not without putting up a fight. Goals for Calgary:  Rene Bourque, Adrian Aucoin, and Jerome Iginla. Goals for the Avalanche:   Marek Svatos(x2), Milan Hejduk, and Ruslan Salei. Svatos, who actually had a decent showing against the Ducks, had a breakout night here, notching two and almost getting an empty netter for the hat. It's always fun to beat a division team and even more fun when that team has lame-ass, sucker puncher, cry baby Todd Bertuzzi on their team. The good news is the home fans never forget and did a nice job booing the goon whenever he touched the puck. Don't know why? Click here.

 Highlights.

 Moving on to last nights thriller against the (hated) Dalls Stars. I hold a very serious grudge against Dallas for Marty Turco's shenanigans in a playoff game a few years back. He charged out to play the puck along the side boards and an Av (think it was Hinote) beat him to the puck, so he checked Hinote and somehow we got a goaltender interference call. That and in a shootout earlier this year he threw his stick against Ryan Smyth and got away with it.

I digress, but it still makes me happy to see the Stars lose. Both teams came out very physical but the Avs appeared to be in top form, at least compared to the Stars. Our strategy appeared to be, as it has for a long time now, to run the dump and chase all over the ice. This doesn't work well, and hasn't for years. I'm a firm believer that the damn dump and chase is dead in the NHL. The Avalanche did manage to cycle the puck well and the top two lines - Smyth, Hejduk, Wolski, and Svatos, Arnason, McLeod - seemed to perform well. Lappy came out hitting and doing his usual troublemaker antics, which I think works for the team, and Salei had a crushing hip check in the second period. But Dalls notched the first tally of the evening with the first period dwindling into mere seconds on the clock. Ott redirected the perfect shot, slinging the puck right up into the far corner and around inside the net. This came on what appeared to be a defensive breakdown on Salei's part right on the edge of the crease. Needless to say the first period ended on a bit of a sore note.

Coming out in the second, the Avalanche actually seemed more intense, which is rare as most fans would note that we tend to drop off after the first (see previous Wings game in which we blew a 3-0 lead). Halfway through the period Hejduk got a feed from the corner, marched in and blew Turco out of his jock. I'm talking about Turco laying down like he was a rookie keeper in his first game. Pathetic. But that tied the game at ones.

Jumping to the beginning of the third, the good guys came out swinging, scoring a goal forty-two seconds in. Svatos picked up a rebound in front of the Stars net and threads it through Turco to put my boys up 2-1. The lead was short lived as Eriksson tied the game back up just seven minutes later on a nice cross ice feed. Just burned Budaj, who, despite that goal had been playing post to post exceptionally well in this game. He had a few beautiful saves coming across the crease. One of which he stopped the initial shot, and smoothly slid over to stop the rebound, textbook. This is usually a week spot of his.

Cody McLeod got the game winner though with less than half the period played. He took a nice feed from Arni behind the Dallas net and went for an impromptu wrap around, which I consider the hybrid-wrap. Instead of going for the near post, the puck went five-hole off of Turco and in. This kid has really come into his own as of late. Everybody, myself included, wrote him off as the bruiser type but he has made some clutch plays recently and really has the confident to move the puck under pressure. I was at his first game, he had his first goal that night too, and I knew that I would like him but this is downright impressive. I see some longevity there.

Despite some quality chances by the Stars, more so after pulling their keep, the Avalanche held on and extended their current winning streak to two measly games. Marek Svatos is riding a two game scoring streak and Hejduk and Smyth have been playing superbly as well. Besides the win, the highlights of the night were: Hannan brutalizing one of the Stars into the Avs net, while Budaj just crouched down and hid inside - Turco going behind the net to play the puck and wiping out just in time to have on of the boys in blue land on top of him. Priceless.

Highlights.