Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

Although both teams came out with some energy, the Oilers appeared to settle into a groove while the Avalanche were settling back on their heels.

The Oil managed on more than one occasion to hem the Avs deep in their zone but it took them a lucky bounce on a second period powerplay to finally get on the board.

Adam Foote tried to clear a ricocheting puck out of the zone but the puck caught the heel of his stick and ended up being a perfect feather pass to Shawn Horcoff who slid it underneath a helpless Peter Budaj.

10 minutes later, the Avs teamed up with the linesman to answer back. As Ian Laperriere broke into the zone, the puck was knocked off his stick. However the linesman inadvertently - or so it seemed - held the puck in at the line while watching for an offside call. Ben Guite quickly grabbed the puck and fired it towards the net. It ended up bouncing to a net-crashing Lappy who slid it under Mathieu Garon.

What's the lesson there? Crash the net and good things happen. And every now and again, lucky bounces go your way. And sometimes the linesmen are on the take.

The Avalanche then deflated the Oilers with two quick goals to end the period.

Paul Stastny kept his seven game point streak alive with his second goal of the season. Marek Svatos tried to cut in, got off a weak backhand which ended up banking off Tom Gilbert right onto Paul Stastny's stick and he had a wide open net to bury it.

A minute and a half later, Cody Mcleod got his third of the season. Mcleod took a chip pass from Lappy, cut hard to the net, tried to shift the puck from backhand to forehand but ended up sliding the puck under a surprised Mathieu Garon. It was an odd goal and likely one that Garon would want back. Either way, the Avs took a 3-1 lead into the third period as the Oilers started breaking down.

The third period started off with a bang as Joe Sakic ended a play that he started. Sakic broke out of the zone and fired a cross-ice pass to Wojtek Wolski. Wolski then made a nice saucer pass up to Darcy Tucker as they crossed the blue line. Tucker then waited to draw the defense and flipped a saucer pass of his own to Joe Sakic who ripped a wrister past a sliding Garon. As flexible as Garon is, there was nothing he could do on that one. Short of installing Go-Go-Gadget Legs.

A bit of rough stuff broke out as Jason Strudwick tried to spark the Oilers with a fight against Cody McCormick. I'd give Strudwich the win but as he took an extra roughing penalty, it didn't build much momentum.

Shortly after that, Craig MacTavish showed some class and tossed out a line including Zach Stortini and Steve MacIntyre, their two heavyweights. Granato warned the refs as Stortini lined up with MacIntyre and sure enough, Stortini dropped them with the always obliging Laperriere. It was over quickly as the two hugged to the ice. Lappy then mocked Stortini, suggesting all Stortini wanted to do was hug and not fight. Pretty funny stuff. They both ended up with a 10-minute misconduct and were done for the night.

The fighting was not enough to spark the tired Oilers team and the Avalanche easily closed out the game to take their fourth win of the season.

Peter Budaj looked much more comfortable in goal tonight. He was much more confident moving side to side and was finding the puck all night long. 

Maybe the extra time on the bench helped calm him down and he's about to break out the Buddha we all know and love.

There is still far too much confusion when the Avs are deep in their own zone. They need to figure this out quick, fast and in a hurry. You can see the hesitation in movement as defenders look to each other, unsure who is going to cover what area of the ice. There's no time for thinking when you're playing the game, that's what practice is for.

Don't think! Do!

The referees tonight were hook happy calling nine straight hooking penalties until the rough stuff at the end of the game. Some of them were very weak calls and did nothing but interrupt the flow of the game.

Ben Guite was in the lineup after sitting for two straight games. And he was rocking the fu. He was also rocking the score sheet with 2 assists and a +2 rating in 10:53 of ice time. Chalk up a win for Jib on that one. 

Mats Sundin was spotted tonight...doing a commercial for Pokerstars.net. Has he run out of money already? Or was he concerned that people weren't talking about him anymore?