Game #33 Recap: Avs at Stars

The beloved Avalanche broke their most recent power play hex but ultimately couldn't duplicate Monday's effort against division foe Dallas. A late goal put the Stars up 3-2 and that's all she wrote. Nate Guenin got a night off in favor of Nick Holden and his 'Aw shucks' grin. Former Av Cameron Gaunce was called up to Dallas just for the occasion and ended up playing a respectable 13 minutes with almost a third of that killing the penalty.

Dallas started the thuggery early in the first when Ryan Garbutt smacked Benoit's honker with his stick, blood was spilled and the Avs were awarded 4 minutes of glorious power play time. This time it actually was glorious with Tyson Barrie sliding a pass to EJ, who unleashed a big shot from the point. Dan Ellis got in the way of that, but the rebound went right to Dutch and the Avs had a 1-0 lead and their first PPG in almost 53 minutes of man-advantage play. Five minutes later, aging Dallas Star Ray Whitney scored from a total cluster in front of the net. The rest of the period featured back and forth play and some truculence between Alex Chiasson and Avs bruiser Marc-Andre Cliche. Pretty even period but the Avs held the shot advantage at 12-7.

The second period was boring. The Avs managed only 2 shots, although one of them went in on an absolutely lovely feed from Duchene to Johnson to in the back of the net. Aging Star Ray Whitney scored again for Dallas and the period ended 2-2. Intermission was fun with Rycroft comparing Dutch to Forsberg in a completely non-blasphemous way.

The third period was animated but ultimately didn't bear fruit for Colorado. More back and forth, and a good bit of forth for the Avs, but it came down to Colton Sceviour getting by Johnny Malkin for a breakaway that ended up right in the lumberyard with 2:52 left in the game.

The Good:

EJ with a goal and an assist

Dutch had 1G/1A and got the 3rd star of the night

The power play scored for the first time since the Nixon Administration

Benoit drew 2 double minors

The Bad:

Ray Whitney, who's almost as old as I am, was allowed to score twice

Mitchell might have been a little better on that breakaway at the end, JSG too

The officiating wasn't all that super

Links:

Team stats

Avalanche individual stats

NHL standings

Fancy stats from Extra Skater

Player use from shiftcharts.com

Avalanche lines & pairings:

ROR - Dutch - Mack

Landy - Stats - PA

Big Meat - Malkin - Talbot

Bordy - Cliche - McLeod

Hejda - EJ

Mr Clean - Sarich

Holden - Barrie

JSG

Varly

Scratches/Injuries: Malone (nacho), Guenin (nacho), Tanguay (knee/hip), Wilson (various)

Next Up:

Avalanche vs Edmonton Thursday 9:30pm ET, 7:30 MT