(AP Photo/Roy Dabner)
The Avalanche got on the board first after Andrew Brunette set up Wojtek Wolski with a nice pass and Wolski beat Bryzgalov with an even better shot. The first period didn't look too bad for the Avs on a whole and I was pretty comfortable with the game at that point.
Then the second period, the Avs best period this year statistically, reared its ugly head. The Coyotes scored two goals in a span of 11 seconds to take the lead. Radim Vrbata and Steven Reinprecht were the goal scorers as they exacted vengeance on their former club.
Vrbata then added one more on a beauty feed from Peter Mueller. He took a hard pass and, rather than one-timing it, waited for a defenseman to provide a screen and wired it past Budaj for a 3-1 lead.
To their credit though the Avalanche did battle back. Brett Clark made it a 3-2 game before the second period was out as he converted on a super fake shot/slap-pass from Ian Laperriere. Then late in the third, Cody Mcleod got the equalizer off of a Vinny Lecavalier-style move from Ben Guite. Guite got the puck down low, banked it off the back of the net as he spun around the defender then, from his knees, fed a tape-to-tape (and mildly lucky) pass to Mcleod who roofed it.
However overtime settled nothing and it was off to a shootout and I wasn't feeling lucky. Budaj has been underwhelming in shootouts and tonight he got no goal support either as Wolski fanned on his shot and Svatos hit the post. Mueller and Vrbata both converted on their attempts to take the win.
Said Coach Q after the loss:
"We'll take the point," coach Joel Quenneville said. "We're coming off two disappointing losses at home [to Detroit, Los Angeles] and down 3-1 in this one, getting the one point isn't too bad."
Good to know the team has lowered their standards so they can be less disappointed with losing to cellar dwelling teams.
As Dario, Jib and I were discussing in the comments of the Kings recao, it should now be interested (read: aggravating) to see who's in net against the Coyotes on Wednesday. Budaj had a mediocre outing tonight and SOP is to swap goalies out as punishment...err...incentive.
However at some point Q is going to have to end the goalie carousel as it proved fruitless last year. Even if Budaj is not as consistent as we'd like, I'd still prefer a 4 wins in a row followed by a loss rather than a win-loss-win-loss rotation.
And a round of thanks to the grinders on this team for being the players who continue to show up and play with passion and drive night after night. Ben, Cody, Ian and Cody, we salute you.
Related Links
NHL.com Event Summary
TSN Recap
ColoradoAvalanche.com Recap
Subscribe with RSS
1 Comment:
Buds in goal tonight. Good to see a less than stellar game in goal doesn't drop him from Top goalie.
Post a Comment