Looking at the stat sheet, the Avs should have won this.
Outshot the Anaheim Ducks 45-18 and just dominated the first period. Final score? 3-2 Ducks of course.
Future Av (like that'll happen) Bobby Ryan scored two goals and was the best player next to goaltender Jonas Hiller as the surging Ducks got enough goals to win.
Hiller took everything the Avs could throw at him and turned it aside with apparent ease and midway through the third period, with the Ducks up 3-0, looked like it would be an easy victory.
However, the Avs would just not go quietly away. Ryan O'Reilly and Milan Hejduk scored a minute and a half apart to set up a heart-pounding, intense end of the game.
Peter Mueller did his best (six shots on net, 10 put toward the net) to get the Avs back into it but the Ducks blocked his shots, whether it was a player or Hiller. After Hejduk's goal, nothing would get by him.
Problems started for the Avs 2:49 into the first period after Bobby Ryan took the puck after O'Reilly missed the drop pass and fired the puck by Jean-Sebastien Giguere. That was the first of two shots the Ducks would get in the first and the only goal that any team would score.
This is just one game for the Avs, a game in which they were around the net and working offensively but had a lot of mistakes on defense, the worst of which done by Jan Hejda.
Teemu Selanne began the third period with a slick move behind the net to pass out front to Ryan Getzlaf. Hejda began the period with an awful move on Selanne followed by him skating into Giguere and eliminating the goaltender from the play. Any more plays like that and Jan Hejda will be the unfortunate victim of a mad scientist experiment in which he'll be surgically fused to a bench.
The Avs played well enough to hang in this game but played defense just bad enough to lose. They have to move on and beat 9th place Minnesota to stay in the playoff picture heading into the All Star break.
Three Stars
1. Bobby Ryan- nearly hats off to him
2. Jonas Hiller- fantastic tonight
3. Ryan Getzlaf- two point night and the goal that changed things
Facepalm of the Game
Jan Hejda wins for barreling over Giguere while tyring to save his own behind.
Bang bang play of the Game
Bobby Ryan Wins for showing the worth what he is truly worth (and no that is not trade worth.)
Colorado Avalanche Blogger • 
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