What a game by the Avalanche! We saw seven goals by four different Avalanche and hats fell to the ice for fan favorite Chris Stewart. Though the steam seemed to run out in the 3rd period, the Avs held on long enough to win the game with a four goal lead to stop the St. Louis Blues winning streak at five.
Photo by Michael Martin - Getty Images
It was nice to see Milan Hejduk back on the ice tonight. He’d been out since the Avs shootout win January 11th against the Calgary Flames. Kyle Cumiskey is still out, but skated this morning with the team and coach Joe Sacco said he would be a game time decision, but I guess the kid wasn’t ready. This game would also be Peter Mueller‘s first home game as an Avalanche player as well as Stephane Yelle‘s first home game back in the burgundy and blue. There was a nice tribute video to Yelle during the game and they had to pause a puck drop momentarily as the crowd went nuts in welcoming him home.
The Blues opened up scoring with a tip-in by David Perron. Due to the goal, the Avs started playing more physical. An example of this, Cody McLeod and Brandon Crombeen were given two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct after Crombeen dropped his glove against McLeod. Cody didn’t want to fight at first, but then dropped his gloves just as the refs were breaking the two up. After two minutes in their respective boxes, they came out at the same time and dropped gloves again. Crombeen got more hits in than Cody, but McLeod wrestled his opponent to the ground.
All that fighting, however, happened after the true response to Perron’s goal. Eleven seconds after Perron’s goal, Milan Hejduk got a wrist shot past Chris Mason, who’s been on a bit of a hot streak over the last five games. Peter Mueller and Matt Duchene got the assists on The Duke’s first goal. One minute and twelve seconds later, Chris Stewart got the first of a few goals he would receive as well. That was all the scoring there would be in the 1st.
Photo by Michael Martin - Getty Images
When the 2nd period started, Chris Stewart decided to get another goal. Fifty-four seconds in, Stewart popped a slap shot in past Mason. Less than a minute later, Hejduk liked the idea of another goal as well and put his second wrister in the net. After four unanswered goals, Blues head coach Davis Payne decided to pull Mason, who had gone from a 5 game winning hot streak to an ice cold salmon. They kept the camera on Mason as he walked down the hallway toward the locker room. When he got toward the end, he took a swing at the stick rack the likes of which Keith “Goalie’s Head Are Baseballs” Ballard would be proud of. Ty Conklin reluctantly took his place between the pipes.
There would be no scoring until 9 minutes later. T.J. Galiardi backhanded a shot past Conklin. Thirty-one seconds later, the Blues got the puck into the Avalanche zone and Alex Steen got a backhand of his own past Avs brick wall Craig Anderson. At the end of the 2nd period, Chris Stewart had a great break away chance on Conklin, but was tripped up by Blues defenseman Erik Johnson. Stewart was awarded a penalty shot, which he scored, and hats rained from the nearly sold out crowd. This was Chris Stewart’s first career hat trick.
The 3rd period was nothing the first two periods were. The Avs began to skate on their heels and turned to straight defense, a mistake they’ve made in the past. Though they were up 6-2 going into the third, they should have continued playing as they did in the first 40 minutes. Because of this method of play, Alex Steen scored his second goal at 4:23 of the third with a tip-in. Even after this the Avs seemed to lose steam. They did play better defense, however.
Photo by Michael Martin - Getty Images
The icing on the cake was the big mistake of pulling Conklin with nearly 3 minutes left on the clock. When you’re down 6-3, I’m not sure where the logic is behind that move, but I’m not a professional hockey coach. At any rate, Matt Hendricks got the puck out of the neutral zone and started skating down the left side. He nearly lost control of the puck due to a Blues defenseman, but kept enough control of it to knock it into the empty net, bringing the score to 7-3. The Avalanche fans blew the roof off the Pepsi Center after this game. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a hat trick.
I think the great thing is that the Avs beat the Blues on February 8th 5-2. The Blues then went on to win the next five games (vs. Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Capitals, Coyotes, Stars) until they walked back into Denver only to lose to the Avs again.
In other news, former Avalanche forward Wojtek Wolski scored in the Coyotes shut out win against the LA Kings tonight. Guess he figured it was time to start shooting the puck. Too bad he didn’t figure that out with the Avalanche.
Related posts:
- Avalanche Sweep Blues
- Avs Bag Another vs. Blues
- Avalanche Blank Panthers 3-0
- Coyotes Bite Avs 6-2
- Avs Squeak by Jackets
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