Avalanche battle hard at Sharks, come up empty to finish road swing
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Devin Setoguchi scored the deciding goal for the Sharks, but the Avalanche look every bit a playoff team with 7 games to go
It would have been easy for the Avalanche to let a season filled with bad breaks drag them back to the bottom of the Western Conference. The Avs have gone from 1st to 8th in the West, and are now threatened with missing the playoffs after a great comeback season.
Despite a sea of injuries dating back to the second month of the season, this very young Colorado team keeps battling for a playoff spot.
The Avs sport the second-most man-minutes lost to injury this season, but they keep finding new contributors. They keep inventing new ways to keep the machine rolling forward, and each game separates them further from a terrible 2008-2009 campaign.
The latest hero for the Avalanche has been the young Kevin Porter, but Sunday night’s game at San Jose saw both Phoenix representatives of the Wolski trade stepping up for the Burgundy & Blue. Porter got his 3rd point in as many games with a back-handed slap through traffic to tie the game at 1-1 early in the 2nd Period. Peter Mueller followed with his 10th goal of the season, 7 of those scores coming in his 12 games with the Avalanche.
Mueller’s tally put the Avalanche up 2-1 just past the halfway point in the game, but the Sharks evened it at 2 apiece inside two minutes left in the 2nd Period.
That set up a fiery 3rd Period.
The Sharks have to play the Avalanche physical, because Colorado has such great team speed. The result is typically a lot of Power Plays for the Avalanche, but the referees swallowed their whistles in San Jose in the 3rd Period. Kyle Cumiskey took a passing punch to the side of his head a few minutes after the Sharks went up on an unassisted deflection goal by Dan Boyle. No call on the play, no calls in the 3rd Period.
The worst no-call of the night came in the 2nd Period.
Dany Heatley cross-checked Paul Stastny brutally to the ice, took the resulting turnover into the Avalanche zone, and almost scored. A shameful miss from a veteran officiating squad led by Bill McCreary.
Cumiskey would come back from that nasty head hit to put his next shot off the San Jose post, and Peter Mueller knocked the rebound in despite his stick being held by a Sharks defender. That knotted the game back up at 3-3.
From there the game got frantic, with the two teams trading series of dominant shifts. Really, the Avalanche were the better team on the night, but struggled to score against backup San Jose goaltender Thomas Greiss. Colorado out-shot the Sharks 45-32 over the course of the game, skated & passed well throughout, and generally looked like the more dangerous playoff team.
San Jose, however, would have the final word in this contest.
Devin Setoguchi scored his second goal of the game on another deflection in the Avalanche crease. 4-3 San Jose, and that score held up despite a flurry from the Avalanche for the final five minutes.
The Sharks are at their best when they have big bodies down low and the room to shoot from on high. That was the story for all but one San Jose goal tonight, and Setoguchi’s game-winner exemplified why the Avalanche will have to be more physical in the playoffs to win a series. This is especially true because, if the playoff field holds, Colorado will face off against San Jose in the 1st Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
There were a lot of positives to take away from this hard-fought game in San Jose.
First, the Sharks play their best hockey at home, and the Avalanche were competitive throughout. That coupled with the less than favorable looks from the referees means that Colorado can definitely win a highly-scrutinized playoff game at HP Pavilion in San Jose.
Second, the Avalanche will be at home for 5 of their remaining 7 games. If Colorado plays as well as they did tonight against the West-leading Sharks, they should win enough of those games to make the Conference Playoff field.
Third, the puck bounced badly for the Avalanche in this game and the last at Phoenix. These Avs look good to come home, get some good breaks, and work hard for the victories they need to hold off Calgary for the 8th. Anything more could mean a rapid rise in the standings, as the Avalanche sit just 3 points back from 5th place Nashville with a game in hand.
