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Tough debut for Berra, Avs drop to 3rd in Central |
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Rick Sadowski
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So much for Reto Berra's Avalanche debut.
Looking rusty and disjointed at times while playing for the first time since March 3, when he made 24 saves for Calgary in a 3-2 loss to Minnesota, Berra stopped 22 shots Wednesday night in the Avalanche's 5-4 overtime loss in Winnipeg.
The defeat, coupled with Chicago's 4-0 win against St. Louis, dropped the Avalanche into third place in the Central Division, one point (95-94) behind the second-place Blackhawks. Both teams have 12 games remaining before the playoffs.
The Avalanche completed the road trip with a 1-1-1 record and have gone 1-2-1 since defeating the Blackhawks on March 12.
The Avalanche finished 3-0-2 against the Jets. All five games were decided by one goal. Three ended in overtime and one in a shootout.
The schedule doesn't get any easier for the Avalanche, with the Boston Bruins taking a 10-game winning streak into the Pepsi Center on Friday. At least Semyon Varlamov will be back in goal after getting what will amount to four consecutive days off since the Avalanche isn't practicing Thursday after flying home Wednesday night.
Berra was the backup for Jean-Sebastien Giguere on Tuesday in the Avalanche's 6-3 loss to Montreal, and Jiggy backed up Berra on Wednesday.
Blake Wheeler scored at 1:42 of overtime to give the Jets the win. He circled to his right as Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson dived to the ice and the rest of the Colorado players -- including Berra -- were in scrambling mode. Wheeler beat Berra with a shot from a sharp angle in the right circle.
"At the end, they made a really good play," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy told reporters. "I thought Wheeler made a good play and scored a nice goal. It was a nice individual effort on the entry. He showed great patience."
Roy was pretty kind in assessing Berra's play:
"I think he got beat on nice shots," he said. "It's his first game, you could tell he was a little bit nervous. But, I mean, when the game was on the line at 4-4 with a couple minutes left he made some good saves for us. I thought for a first game he did a good job. He didn't make a lot of big saves, but he didn't let in any softie ones. They scored on nice shots."
The Avalanche has taken a huge gamble on Berra, 27, trading a second-round pick in the 2014 NHL draft to the Flames in exchange for him on March 5 and last week signing him to a three-year, $4.35 million contract extension.
Berra, who is 6-feet-4, is in his first NHL season after starting the year with Abbotsford in the American Hockey League. He spent his entire career in his native Switzerland before this year.
I guess you can't really knock the guy after one game with a few practices under his belt while adjusting to a new organization, but Berra definitely has some work to do with goalie coach Francois Allaire.
As for the game, the Avalanche got off to a great start when Ryan O'Reilly scored 20 seconds after the opening faceoff, but it was a battle after that.
Gabriel Landeskog tied it for the Avalanche 2-2 with 2:13 left in the first period; Nick Holden tied the game 3-3 with 31 seconds remaining in the second period; and Cody McLeod cashed in a 2-on-1 rush with Matt Duchene to make it 4-4 at 10:23 of the third.
"We just wanted to make sure that we had a good start, and we did," Roy said. "I thought our guys had good legs. (Thursday) we'll rest and be ready for the Bruins on Friday night."
The Avalanche played without centers John Mitchell (back) and Paul Stastny, who was given the night off after playing Tuesday, his first game since hurting his back on his first shift March 8 against St. Louis. Mitchell was injured in the second period against the Canadiens when he crashed into the boards and is listed as day to day.
The Jets moved within four points of Phoenix for the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference with 11 games left. The Coyotes have 13 games to play.
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