(Associated Press)
Anyhoo...last night the Avalanche grabbed their fourth of six possible points on their current road trip - and third win in a row - with their 3-2 shootout victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Heading into the third period, the Avalanche were down 2-1 and didn't appear poised to score the tying goal any time soon.
But then the rarest of rarities happened. The Oilers took two penalties leading to a 6-on-3 advantage for the Avalanche with just 25 seconds left.
It started when Fernando Pisani got called for hooking at 18:01. The Avalanche pulled Peter Budaj for the 6-on-4 advantage but couldn't get anything together.
Then Marek Svatos decided to take matters into his own hands and stickhandled past half a dozen Oilers and their moms leading to an Ethan Moreau tripping penalty.
So in a smart - if not obvious - move, Granato sent out Smyth and Tucker to stand in front of the net and annoy Roloson. Roloson was frustrated and distracted by Smyth all game long so why not toss an extra body in front of him and see if he snaps.
It worked superbly as Jordan Leopold fired a shot from the point and while Roloson was hacking, slashing and punching at the pesty pair, Tucker managed to get a stick on it and tip it past Roloson.
Roloson quickly went screaming over to the refs to protest the undoubtedly legal goal. Smyth and Tucker stayed out of the crease, the tip in happened well below the goal line and nobody had touched Roloson.
Seriously Dwayne, grow some stones and quit whining to the refs whenever opponents get within a meter of you. And don't think we didn't notice your dive when Smyth breathed on in the third period. We noticed and we loved it.
That tied the game with 11 seconds to go and as OT solved nothing, it was off to the shootout.
Wojtek Wolski and Sam Gagner both scored to start things off but the next six shooters couldn't get anything past the keepers.
Then Darcy Tucker stepped on the ice. And I said "WTF?" Then Tucker scored. And I said "WTF?" Then Budaj stopped Horcoff. And I said "Yippee!"
The Avalanche now head into Calgary to complete their trip. The Flames got spanked 6-1 by the Sharks on Thursday and don't play again until Tuesday. I think it's safe to say that they will come out pretty fired up. Of course you never know what Iron Mike has up his sleeve.
Notes
Peter Budaj stood tall in net once again. He has allowed just three goals in his last three games. Coincidentally, those all equated to wins. He is on his way to proving what many believed all along - he has the technology. He can play bigger, stronger, faster.
Liam Reddox drew in tonight as Dustin Penner and Kyle Brodziak were in street clothes. And in true Avalanche fashion, he scored the first goal of his NHL career. Is somebody willing to look up how many players scored their first career goal against the Avs? Because offhand...it feels like a lot.
Ryan Smyth got his first goal against his former team as he drove the net hard and banged in a rebound. Remember kids, it's never a bad idea to go hard to the net. And it's always fun to score against your former team no matter what anybody says.
Darcy Tucker is getting back into everyone's good books as he scored the game tying goal as well as the winner in the shootout.
Joe Sakic sat out for the second straight game. The Avalanche are hopeful he will join the team in Calgary. But don't worry, they were hopeful he would join the team in Edmonton too.
Brett Clark was the ice-time leader with 24 minutes last night. He shouldn't be playing that many minutes as it became evident late in the game that he was gassing and making poor plays.
Late in the third, he was circling behind the net being chased by an Oiler when another Oiler started coming at him from the other direction. Rather than dump the puck past the oncoming Oiler, he tried to cut out in front of Budaj which was nearly disastrous. Mostly because my eyes nearly fell out of their sockets.
David Jones spent a grand total of 6:41 on the ice tonight, most of that in the first and second periods. What happened to the dynamo from the preseason? If he doesn't wake up soon, he'll be heading back to Lake Erie to hopefully regain some confidence. He's got none at the moment.
Milan Hejduk took the draw to start off the 6-on-3 advantage and won it handily. Paul Stastny was on the ice but had only won 8 of his 20 draws while Hejduk was a perfect 3-for-3 leading up to that crucial draw.
Ian Laperriere, Cody Mcleod, Cody McCormick, Zach Stortini, Jesse Boulerice...and no fights? Bizarre.
Game highlights
Post-game Comments
Related Links
NHL.com Event Summary
In the Cheap Seats Recap
Rocky Mountain News Recap
Denver Post Recap
Budaj, Avalanche stun Oilers in SO
Avalanche defeat Oilers in shootout
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7 Comments:
When it was 2-1 in the dieing seconds, I saw that the godfather and boogie nights were on the movie channels...my mind briefly wandered...but then TUCKER!!
I had no idea Hanan was even playing till i heard his name mentioned sometime in the second period. this team needs to get their shit together D wise. Guys like Liles and Leopold (no suprise on the latter) couldn't get it out past the neutral zone and there was always an oiler sitting on the centre line ready to chip it back in. (speaking of leopold, rumors out here in ottawa say there were avs scouts at the sens game the other night and they're looking at vermette.) I thought last night was smyttys best game ive seen him play in edmonton. Classy things he said about e-town when he was interviewed in the intermission.
The team is still so frustratingly weak on clearing the puck. The little dribbles up the boards aren't working at all. They don't have a lot of mustard on them but they also don't often have a winger supporting the clear and when the winger does get the puck, they try to stop it and then dump it out rather than just chipping it past the defense.
The team is not playing well enough in the neutral zone to try breaking out like that. They need to get a little dirtier on their clears.
And the reason they're not playing well enough in the neutral zone is that they're still clogging themselves up by coming together rather than spreading out. It boggles my mind as to who is teaching that as a sound strategy. Especially for a "run-and-gun" offensive style.
by the way shane, I see you rip clark for the minutes he's logging, yet his skate save on horcoff when he had the open net saved the game for us :P
But if he hadn't given the puck away in the first place he wouldn't have had to make the save ;)
Shane is right. Clark gets a little credit for making the save, but the pass that went right to Horcoff was lazy and boneheaded.
ok ok touche to shane and mike..touche
NHLnet sucks.... :(
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