I'm gonna kinda halfass this recap but since the Avs halfassed this game, I'm not feeling too guilty. First of all, the fact that Paul Stastny, T.J. Galiardi, Milan Hejduk and Scott Hannan among others were healthy scratches shows how seriously the Avs were taking this game. Peter Budaj got his 10th and possibly last start of the season though I'd like to see him start in Chicago too. Especially since his efforts this game were wasted.
The Avs started the scoring with Matt Duchene putting home the rebound off a John-Michael Liles slapper. Ryan O'Reilly scored a few seconds later on a remarkably similar play. Then Marek Svatos scored a goal for the first time in forever off a nice feed from Darcy Tucker (he seems to be excited about the playoffs, eh?). And just like that the Avs were up 3-0 and looked like they had this game in the bag. But they clearly thought that as well and stopped playing for the rest of the first and failed to show up for the second. The Oilers scored the next four goals. And not one of them did Budaj have a chance. Dustin Penner scored on a breakaway and Andrew Cogliano was left wide open in front of the net. The other two were power play goals. The Avs really need to get their penalty kill sorted out if they want to do anything in the playoffs...
Anyway, the Avs went down 4-3 early in the third and decided to play hockey again. Duchene's line and O'Reilly's line looked pretty good but it was hard working Matt Hendricks who tied it up after a diving feed from Cody McLeod. The Avs looked good the rest of the period, putting 20 shots on net when they had a whole fifteen the first two periods. In over time, they flat out quit playing, putting zero shots on net. Peter Budaj did his best to get to a shootout but Kyle Quincy made a weakass clearing attempt, followed by some more weakass play and Penner found Ryan Whitney alone in the slot for the game winner. Peter Budaj skated off the ice in a hurry, presumably, f'ing pissed. He made 40 stops, many of them very good, but still lost the game. I'd be kinda pissed too.