Gabriel Bourque doesn't do anything fancy, but he's turned into a valuable role player for the Avalanche.

The 5-feet-10, 206-pound forward -- like Blake Comeau, Carl Soderberg and Matt Nieto -- does a lot of the dirty, unsung work that has helped the Avalanche stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.

"The way he plays, the way he leads, sacrifices every day for our team," coach Jared Bednar told AltitudeTV. "He is getting in shot lanes, he eats a lot of hard minutes and does a lot of the things that don't get a lot of credit in the media.

"That's why he is out there at the end (of games). That is his job, to defend leads ... and kill penalties. For him, to be chipping in offensively is what we need right now, especially when we are shorthanded."

Bourque collected what proved to be the winning goal Sunday in Buffalo when he scored to give the Avalanche a 5-2 lead in an eventual 5-4 win, their third win in six games without injured Nathan MacKinnon.

(It will be two weeks on Tuesday since MacKinnon sustained an "upper-body injury" -- likely a shoulder injury -- in Vancouver. The original prognosis was for him to miss 2-4 weeks, so he's getting close. The Avalanche should have an update Tuesday when they return to practice following Monday's day off).

Bourque is solid defensively, kills penalties and lately has been chipping in offensively. His goal Sunday was his third in the past four games for a team that has been struggling to score without MacKinnon.

"I didn't change anything, I just played the same way," Bourque said. "I go hard to the net and finally it paid off."

MacKinnon's 'A' as an alternate captain had gone to Comeau, who is out with a lower-body injury, so it was worn by Bourque the past two games.

Not bad for a guy who began the season with San Antonio.

"The 'A, I am pretty happy about it, a lot of guys deserve it," he said.

Bourque has played in 20 consecutive games, 31 overall. He has seven points (five goals, two assists), 35 blocked shots and 76 hits while averaging a little under 12 minutes a game.

*****

Sunday's win was anything but pretty, but points are points. The Avalanche were two points behind Minnesota for the second wild card in the Western Conference before Monday's games.

They play Montreal at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday, looking to stretch their home winning streak to 10 games.

The five goals matched the Avalanche's total of the previous four games, which included an empty-netter. They also got a power-play goal from Tyson Jost after going 0-for-13 on power plays the previous four games.



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