New Year's Reprieve

The Flyers (14-16-6) visited Denver to cap off 2014 against the Avalanche (13-15-8).

LINES

Tanguay-O'Reilly-Iginla

MacKinnon-Duchene-Briere

Landeskog-Mitchell-Rendulic

McLeod-Cliche-Talbot

Hejda-Johnson

Guenin-Barrie

Stuart-Holden

Varlamov

Yogi the-bench-warmer Berra

1ST PERIOD (Flyers 1, Avs 0)

The Avs showed their new dump and chase mentality early, but unfortunately it looks like the Flyers came to play tonight and are outshooting the Avs 10-8. Power plays are the difference in this game though. The Avs need to take advantage of the league's worse penalty kill. 0-for-3 is unacceptable. They got a lot of quality chances on the power play, but chances aren't pucks in the back of the net. The lone goal was a little preventable. I know it's a penalty kill, but you can't leave the league's leader in points that open. Nice shot, and it's 1-0. Let's see if the Avs can kill penalty number two. Interesting Note: Brad Stuart is getting some time on the Power Play. Veteran presence?

2ND PERIOD (Avs 2, Flyers 1)

A few bits of good news this period and a couple firsts. Roy juggled the lines just a bit and the Avs responded. The Avs were all over the Flyers for a good portion of the period. Guenin went into pinball wizard mode and fired one in off half the Flyers for his first of the year. Despite thinking the ref was a wide open player at one point, Landeskog is having a real strong game. Nice pass to set up Rendulic for his first NHL goal. Borna got a little lucky on the shot, but he made a real smart move to get open. It's nice to see the Avs getting some bounces for once. It's also nice that my Chinese food just got here (Thank you, Yen King!). Interesting Note: Borna Rendulic is the first Croatian born player to score in the NHL. Congrats, Croatia!

3RD PERIOD (Avs 3, Flyers 3)

Not the best start of the period for the Avs. The Flyers came out with a purpose. Can't blame anybody too much for those two Flyer goals. Lecavalier tattooed that shot to the far post on the game tying goal and Claude Giroux went full all-star mode on the third. Gotta give Giroux a little room, but too much and he'll burn you. Glad to see the Avs respond on the power play after that cheap trip by Coburn on Tanguay. Nice to see Iginla go Brett Hull in the corner. Nice shot. Close call near the end of the period, but we're going to overtime. Interesting Note: O'Reilly is looking the most animated I've seen him all year. His play set up that Iginla goal on the power play.

OVERTIME (Avs 4, Flyers 3)

Funny overtime period. The Avs let the Flyers give them some nail bitters. Jan Hejda was unreal in those five minutes; blocking shots, getting in the goalie's face. Last play of the game: Barrie uses the offensive denfenseman cheat code and gets the puck into the zone, him and O'Reilly play catch almost a little too much until O"Reilly wills the puck through Tanguay's wrestling match in front of Mason, and winner, winner, chicken dinner.

HIGHLIGHTS

<iframe src="http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/embed?playlist=714542&site=avalanche" frameborder="0" width="640" height="395"></iframe>

And here's the boxscore.

MHH THREE STARS

1- Ryan O'Reilly: Throw out some trade rumors and the guy performs. When it came down to the third period and overtime, Factor was the factor. Now that's good to see.

2- Borna Rendulic: Gotta give a Croatian shout out to the call-up. It's always nice to see a guy score his first NHL goal, and Borna deserved the goal and the ice time he got on the higher lines.

3- Gabriel Landeskog: The goalless drought continues, but the Avs captain was the Avs strongest player in the first two periods. Nice pass to Rendulic on the second goal and not a bad pass to the ref either.

NEXT UP

Friday January 2nd, 2015

Avs vs Oilers

Game time: 7pm, MT

TV: ALT

Happy freaking New Year everyone! Stay safe out there.