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Avs edge pesky Flames, move to 13-2 |
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Rick Sadowski
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It wasn't easy by any means against a Calgary Flames team that has now lost nine of its past 12 games, but the Avalanche held on for a 4-2 win Friday night at the Pepsi Center for its 13th victory in 15 games.
The Avalanche needed an empty-net goal from center Matt Duchene with 1.9 seconds to go to secure the win against the Flames. The Avalanche has matched the best start through 15 games in franchise history. The Quebec Nordiques also were 13-2-0 in 1994-95.
"The more you win, the better you want to become," said center Paul Stastny, whose power-play goal (it came during a two-man advantage) gave the Avalanche a 2-0 lead at 1:09 of the second period. "You have to find different ways to win. Today was probably not our best, but sometimes when you're not playing your best, not feeling your best, you find a way to win. That's important."
Stastny has been playing his best hockey in quite a while. He has six goals -- two game winners -- and three assists in the past nine games and is a plus-8 in that time. He moved past Alex Tanguay into sole possession of ninth place on the franchise's all-time scoring list with 410 points (141 goals, 269 assists) in 482 games.
“I think it’s just confidence, it’s an attitude," said Stastny, who skated Friday with Gabriel Landeskog and Jamie McGinn, the latter of whom is replacing the injured Tanguay. "You know as well as I do Tangs is a smart player. Unfortunately, he’s hurt right now, but me and him kind of see the game the same way and (he’s) such a give-and-go guy that it makes the game a lot easier when I play with him, guys like that.
"You know on the left side you got a Landeskog who is as powerful as they come, as a shooter and he can also be a passer, so you have two different options and that’s key. Now that Tangs is hurt, we have different guys playing that slot. I played with McGinn in the past, so we are deep enough that we can kind of afford to get away with a few injuries for now.”
Left wing John Mitchell began the season centering the fourth line, but he has since moved up to left wing on the third unit with rookie Nathan MacKinnon and Max Talbot. He gave the Avalanche a 3-1 lead at 7:16 of the second period after a nice pass from MacKinnon for his first goal since the Oct. 2 season opener against Anaheim.
MacKinnon, back at center after playing parts of two games as Tanguay's replacement, came out of the corner and slipped the puck to Mitchell just above the right hash marks for a shot that sailed by goalie Karri Ramo's glove.
"We had a little bit of offensive zone pressure and I just tried to find a little quiet area in the slot," Mitchell said. "I was just kind of standing there and Mack came around and we made eye contact and he got me the puck. I just tried to get it off as quick as I could."
Mike Cammalleri, who had seven of the Flames' 32 shots, scored 2 1-2 minutes later with his second goal of the night to trim the Avalanche lead to 3-2.
"They kind of took it to us for a lot of the game, actually," Mitchell said. "But these are games that we have to learn to win. You're going to get up and you might not deserve to be up, but you have to bend and not break and play smart."
Ryan O'Reilly opened the scoring at 5:31 of the first period with a one-timer from the slot off a pass from PA Parenteau. He has scored a goal in three consecutive games to tie a career best.
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Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 30 shots for his fifth win in as many starts. He owns a 1.00 goals-against average and .970 save percentage and has yet to permit more than two goals in a game. But he was more pleased with the Avalanche's ability to rebound from Wednesday's 6-4 loss to Nashville than for any personal accomplishment.
Giguere has matched the longest winning streak to start a season for a Nordiques or Avalanche goalie. He tied teammate Semyon Varlamov, who won his first five starts this season, along with Quebec's Stephane Fiset (1994-95) and Mario Gosselin (1985-86).
"It's big," he said of the win. "That was a big game for us. After going 12-1 and you lose a game, it would be easy to go into bad habits. We showed a lot of character. We managed to find a way to come up with a big win. We should be pretty happy with this."
Giguere made a number of big stops, including one against Jiri Hudler from in close with 2:35 left in the third period when the Flames were applying plenty of pressure in an attempt to get the tying goal.
"I tend to forget my saves and the goals pretty quick," he said. "I try to live in the present. I competed. I tried to compete and ended up with a good result."
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Avalanche coach Patrick Roy gave plenty of credit to the Flames, who played Thursday night in St. Louis, were ending a four-game road trip and have now lost nine of their past 12 games.
"It's a team that works really hard," Roy said. "For a back-to-back game I thought they had great legs. They were skating well. At the same time, I thought we played a good game too."
Flames coach Bob Hartley was happy with his team's effort, but that isn't good enough anymore. "This league, it’s not a feel-good league," he said. "Moral victories do not exist, you need to put points on the board."
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Roy said he thought MacKinnon had one of his best games after moving him back to center. The 18-year-old had three shots and three hits in 17:20 of ice time to go along with his assist, and Roy showed plenty of confidence in him by putting him on the ice in the late stages of a tight game.
"Nate was flying on the ice," Roy said. "Him with Mitchell and Talbot was pretty close to being our top line. I felt like I wanted to give him more (ice time) because he was playing a super game. I was very impressed with him. We had a bit of a talk before practice (Thursday) and I thought he responded very well."
Roy also said he thought defenseman Erik Johnson could have been named the game's first star (it went to Mitchell). Johnson had a shot, an assist and five blocked shots while playing 22:41. "When EJ is moving his feet, he's a good player," Roy said. "He showed a lot of poise out there."
Roy was impressed with Nick Holden, who played his natural position -- defense -- for the first time this season after being used as a left wing on the fourth line in his only other game. Holden played 15:56, including time on the power play, and added a shot and four hits while paired with Nate Guenin.
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