Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

My goodness that was an exciting game! I'm still a bit amped up and am having a hard time collecting my thoughts.

The Avalanche put down the Wild with an intense 6-5 win at the Xcel Energy Center.

Right from puck drop the Avs had their legs flying and they kept it up throughout most of the game. It's amazing how much free ice you have to skate when your teammates give you room to breathe.

The Wild drew first blood but the Avs didn't let that get them down. They kept applying the pressure and were rewarded with two quick goals.

Marek Svatos and David Jones answered back for the Avs and you started to get the feeling this one was going to escalate.

The Wild then got their first of three goals on the powerplay with Ryan Smyth in the box.

Smyth then promptly headed right back into the box after lipping off to the referee. It was a bold move. And by "bold", I mean "boneheaded". The Wild scored again with Smyth in the box to make it 3-2.

I suppose it's the Wild's fault really for scoring 6 seconds in to the first powerplay and not giving Smyth a chance to cool down in the box.

But then the Avalanche really opened up.

Paul Stastny, Milan Hejduk and T.J. Hensick put the Avs up 5-3. And then Stastny potted one more for good measure to make it 6-3.

Stastny's secong goal was due to some hard work down low by Ryan Smyth that helped make up for the two penalties he took earlier. But it was the equivalent of saying sorry after cheating on your girlfriend. The damage was already done and no amount of work could make it the same again. Once a cheater, always a cheater!

The Avs gave up another PP goal to close out the period after a weak, weak, weak, weak tripping call on David Jones. How weak was it? ...Dang, I thought I had a good joke there but I blanked after seeing a De La Hoya-Pacquiao promo.

Josh Harding replaced Backstrom for the third period and did an admirable job stopping all five shots that were sent his way.

Then, for the second game in a row, the Avs had their fans on edge after the opposition pulled within one goal.

It was a goal that never should have counted though. Brent Burns, playing as a winger, drove wide on Brett Clark and beat him to the goal. And then proceeded to push Budaj out of the way while the puck slowly slid into the net.

The goal was reviewed to see if Burns had kicked the puck in and during the review, the announcers stated "See, Budaj tried to make a play with his stick. That didn't work."

My response was "Because Burns skate was pushing his stick out of the way!"

I mean, my goodness. If that's not the definition of goaltender interference, I don't know what is. I'll watch the highlights again to make sure I'm not overreacting on that goal but I'm quite certain I'm not.

Either way, the Wild ended up shooting themselves in the foot as Bergeron ended up tripping Milan Hejduk with just 54 seconds to go.

Phew, that was a mouthful. I'll come back tomorrow with some overall thoughts on the game.

Related Links
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