Game 50: Ducks 4, Avalanche 3

Well, I'm stepping in and handling the post game wrap up of the latest Avalanche debacle, in place of our preoccupied and beloved fearless leaders. This one is going to be relatively straightforward, since this homestand is becoming uglier and uglier by the day.

With the recent lack of success, as well as the lack of potency Joe recently mentioned, everyone's favorite recycled coach decided to mix up the lines today, splitting up the only two players who ever actually, you know, deliver a consistent offensive effort in Milan Hejduk and Ryan Smtyh. The Mullet skated alongside Baron von Wolski and Marek Svatos for the majority of the game, while The Duke took his place alongside the two kids on the roster, T.J. Hensick and Chris Stewart.

Early in what would prove to be a relatively chippy affair, Cody McLeod paired off with Steve Montador during a scrum behind the Anaheim net and administered a solid beating, despite Montador's best efforts to seatbelt McLeod. Cody would periodically stop by throughout the rest of the game and say hello to Montador, even lighting him up in the corner a bit later in the period. Several minutes later, Chris Pronger took a penalty, and the Avs capitalized on the man advantage, with John-Michael Liles blasting the puck past Jonas Hiller for the game's opening goal, with assists going to the young'ins, Hensiiiiick and Stewie.

However, the Ducks answered back in timely fashion, when George "Hands of Iron" Parros attempted to kill the puck and accidentally scored by slipping in a rebound for his team to tie the game back up. The goal came during a delayed penalty from everybody's favorite offseason acquisiton Darcy Tucker. Several minutes later, Marek Svatos' face assaulted Corey Perry's stick, and the Avs received a four minute powerplay by way of the double minor. The Avs failed to get anything significant going, although Peter Budaj stoned Chris Kunitz on a shorthanded breakaway during the second minor after Brett Clark gave the puck away. After the penalty ended, Ryan Getzlaf, who assisted on the goal scored by the Geico caveman earlier in the game, rocketed a one timer from the low slot past a screened Budaj with four minutes left to give the Bad Disney Movies a one goal lead, which they took into the locker room. The period closed with a few more scrums, and rookie Bobby Ryan and Parros managing to run into each other with nobody else around them, knocking each other off their feet. Haven't seen that one in the NHL for awhile.

The early part of the second period was rather uneventful, but during a Ryan Smyth penalty in the middle of the period, Milan Hejduk stole the puck from Bret Hedican (who had a rough game, later leaving bloodied thanks to Stewie's elbow) and wristed the puck past Hiller to tie up the game for the Boys in Burgundy. Less than two minutes later, everyone's favorite red head Cody McLeod (as opposed to Darcy and Arnason, our red-headed stepchildren at this point) broke into the Anaheim zone and dropped the puck back to Lappy, who let a wrist shot go and beat Hiller upstairs to the glove side.

This game had some serious back and forth play, and two minutes later, the Mighties evened the game up, as Scott Niedermayer one-timed a Bobby Ryan feed past Boods with The Mullet sitting in the penalty box. The Avs received a powerplay chance minutes later, but that was eradicated when The Duke was called for an interference penalty. The Avs managed to kill it, but Ben Guite (most unfortunately, sans his amazing pornstache) was called for one of those idiotic and pointless delay of game penalties. The Avs killed that one too, and the rest of the period went smoothly, with little else significant happening.

The Avs started the third with a powerplay, thanks to a Brett Festerling penalty at the tail end of the second period. However, the Avalanche failed to capitalize, and the Ducks came on strong immediately after the penalty. The pressure lead to a Teemu Selanne goal, which would prove to be the winning marker. Despite the Avs putting the pressure on late in the period, with Granato even reuniting The Duke and The Mullet alongside Baron von Wolski, the Avs just couldn't tie the contest. They came close at the very end, when Marek Svatos backhanded a Smitty pass from behind the net, but a screened Hiller had luck on his side, as it hit his chest and bounced off and away harmlessly.

The Avs played decently in this one, and managed to hang steady with the Ducks, but in the end they just were not able to come up with that tying marker. Ryan Getzlaf walked away with the first star of the game, with a goal and two assists to his name in the matinee contest. Meanwhile, the Avs dropped to 1-5 in their past six, with all of the games being played at home. Some homestand, eh? That little light of playoff hope is beginning to dim, in a hurry. Well, there’s the post-game wrap up for today. Thanks for reading. Stay classy, MHH.