Well, the Avs haven't had the best 3 game stretch. 0-2-1 in their last 3. Heartbreaking loss to the Red Wings last time out, in a game that they really dominated and should have won. Can they turn thing around against an Oilers team that is last place in the Western Conference, or will the Avs come out asleep again?
Scoring recap
Period 1
Avs came out strong in this one. All lines firing. T.J. Galliardi got the scoring started on this one. Good play in the offensive zone, get the puck at the net, and Galliardi put one in off an Edmonton defensive player. That was at 3:22 of the first. A really good, fast start for the Avs on the road.
Paul Stastny was the beneficiary of a fantastic play by David Jones for the second goal of the game. Jones chased a dumped puck into the corner, won the 1-on-1 battle. He worked towards the net, smooth stick work, and made a great back hand pass to Stastny who buried it by the Edmonton goalie. 2-0 Avs.
Probably the best line of the evening was the Duchene-Hejduk-Fleischmann line. After a great shift of a lot of pressure in the Edmonton zone, Matt Duchene forced a bad pass from the Oilers defenseman that trickled right out to Flash who made no mistake putting it behind the Oilers goalie for a huge 3-0 lead.
Period 2
After the team traded power play opportunities, and failed, the Oilers ended up with a decent amount of momentum. Avs struggled a lot getting the puck out of their own zone in this one, and paid the price after Edmonton one a few physical battles to get the puck down low. Gagner made a great pass to Taylor Hall, who was all alone in front of the net, and he pounded it home. Andy had no chance on this one.
Avs had a lot of great scoring chances in this period but either got too cute, just plain missed, or were robbed.
Period 3
After the Avs fail on another golden opportunity to take a strangle hold of the game, Oilers take it down the ice, Hemsky takes it into the middle and burries it top shelf, over Andy's blocker to make it a 3-2 game.
Avs defense continues to fall asleep and just plain lets Edmonton back into the game. After a dominant beginning, the Avs expected the Oilers to roll over, and they didn't. 3-3 as Hemsky comes flying back into the zone, lulls the D to sleep, who just leaves Cogliano alone in front of the net who hammered it home for a 3-3 tie.
OT
The poor officiating continues. Avs got a PP, then the refs gave the Oilers a make up call that was weak, and that is being very, VERY nice. Teams trade PPs, and fail. Shootout.
Shootout
Andy makes first save on Jordan Eberle
Hejduk buries the first one for the Avs.
Andy then stuffs Hemsky
Dutchy gets stopped
Andy then stops Taylor Hall, who earns the Avs the extra point, that they really didn't deserve.
Andy played pretty well during this game. Gave up 3 goals, but was totally abandoned by his defense on this one. The most troubling part about this game is that the Avs blew a 3-0 lead, and constantly had trouble getting out of their own zone. Defensive pairs were all bad in this game, and we pretty much only won because Andy realized he would have to win it by himself this time around.
Avs got outshot by the worst team in the Western Conference and just seemed as if they expected that the game would be done after the first period; and that they really didn't know how to respond when Edmonton just wouldn't go down for good. Coming from a team that seems to pride itself on never giving up on games when they get down, it seems odd that the Avs would just try and put it in cruise control so early. As well as they played in the first, they were really just awful, collectively, in the last 2 periods.
As poor as things went for the Avs in the last 2 periods, you have to put part of this towards the officiating which was just plain awful, and that is putting it nicely. Seemed like since the Avs were up 3-0 at the start of the 2nd period, that meant that there would be absolutely nothing called for the Avs. Multiple times Oilers players barreled into the Avalanche goaltender, Craig Anderson, and somehow the Avs would end up with the penalty out of that situation. I don't understand how players can go crashing into the net, especially when the goalie is deep in his crease, and the penalty is not called. Pretty pathetic officiating, it definitely something that the NHL does not want. You never like it when it is so obvious that the officiating had such a strong impact on the game. That's a larger picture thing that the NHL needs to deal with.
In the end, the Avs end up with a win. Tomorrow night, the Avs are in Calgary. They'll have to come with a more complete game in order to beat a Calgary team that is always tough.
Oh, also, Hunwick was -1 again tonight. This guy has been a huge trade bust thus far. Think the Bruins would be willing to take this guy back?
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