The Avalanche attack we all expected finally surfaced Friday night with a 7-3 waxing of Vancouver at the Pepsi Center. The start of something big?
"I think we’re an offensive team and I think all of us have been point-getters," said
Matt Duchene, who had a goal, two assists and six shots on goal. "A lot of us have been point-getters our whole careers, and when those aren’t coming, your confidence gets shaken a bit. It was really nice to see a lot of guys get on the board tonight and that just helps our confidence going forward."
Jarome Iginla scored his first two goals in an Avalanche uniform and
Tyson Barrie matched his career high for points in a game with three assists.
Daniel Briere, Erik Johnson, Gabriel Landeskog and
Jamie McGinn also scored in support of goalie
Semyon Varlamov (26 saves), who picked up his first win of the season.
The Avalanche outshot the Canucks, who played their third road game in four nights, 48-29 for their first home win, which came before an appreciative crowd of 17,119.
The 48 shots were a season high and matched the team's largest output of last season in a 6-2 win against Dallas on Dec. 16, 2013. The seven goals matched last season's top total, a 7-1 win against Buffalo on Feb. 1, 2014.
The Avalanche didn't score more than three goals in any game before Friday and were averaging 1.7 goals per game, so they are hoping this was the breakthrough they've been seeking.
"Yeah, it is," Duchene said. "We've had games where we probably could have scored that many goals and we didn't. It's been frustrating and was really nice to see all those go in tonight."
The Avalanche took leads in their four previous games but couldn't build on them, which is why it was crucial when Briere and Duchene scored 3:50 apart early in the third period to build a 5-2 advantage.
"That's what we've been missing, to step on the throat and put the nail in the coffin," Duchene said. "Tonight we were able to do that. That's what made us successful last year. Any time we were up we finished it off. When we were down we believed we could come back. Hopefully that carries on to the rest of the season."
Iginla scored his first goal of the game and 561st of his career at 14:28 of the first period to move past
Guy Lafleur into a tie with
Mike Modano for 23rd place on the all-time list. He passed Modano with 43.3 seconds remaining in the game when he deflected
Alex Tanguay's shot into the net.
"It felt good," said Iginla, who had five shots and passed to Duchene for a breakaway goal and 5-2 lead at 5:55 of the third period. "I was getting a little frustrated in the first. I had some great looks. The first (goal) Dutch gave me a nice pass right in the slot. I had it on my backhand and just tried to get it as high as I can. It was very nice to see it go in. It sure felt good to get it and I'll just keep trying to go from here."
Said Duchene: "It was so great to see Iggy get that first one tonight. I know it was a huge monkey off his back. Two beautiful goals. You can see why he’s going to be a Hall Of Fame guy."
The Avalanche got goals from McGinn and Johnson in the second period to take their 3-2 lead. McGinn tied the game 2-2 at 6:06 by driving to the net to convert a pass from Duchene, who carried the puck along the right-wing boards, moved to the left of Canucks goalie
Eddie Lack and slipped the puck by defenseman
Christopher Tanev.
Johnson scored on a 5-on-3 power play at 8:48 with Vancouver's
Nick Bonino (high sticking) and
Shawn Matthias (hooking) in the penalty box. Barrie passed to Johnson, who shot the puck from the high slot past Lack, who was screened on the play.
The Canucks took a 2-1 lead in the first period on goals by
Henrik Sedin, who scored 10 seconds into the game, and
Alexandre Burrows, who broke a 1-1 tie at 17:23.
The Avalanche have been plagued by turnovers on a nightly basis, a trend that continued when Johnson tried to send the puck around the boards.
Daniel Sedin intercepted and fed Henrik in the slot for a quick shot past Varlamov.
"It didn’t start like we wanted," Avalanche coach
Patrick Roy said. "We gave up a goal, but what I was impressed with is it didn’t change our game. We stayed focused, we kept going and I thought we had an outstanding first period after that. Even after they took the second lead in the first period I got the sense the guys were focused."
*****
The Avalanche will practice Saturday morning before departing for Winnipeg and Sunday afternoon's game with the Jets ...
Cody McLeod became the first player in Avalanche history and the sixth in Quebec/Colorado history to reach 1,000 career penalty minutes -- he has 1,004 in 475 games -- when he fought
Derek Dorsett at 9:25 of the first period ... With 562 career goals, Iginla is two behind
Joe Nieuwendyk and
Mats Sundin, who are tied for 21st place all time ... He has collected three points in a game 91 times ...
Tanguay's assist gave him 415 points as a member of the Avalanche, moving him past
Valeri Kamensky for sole possession of ninth place in franchise history. He has 144 goals and 271 assists in 474 games with Colorado ... Varlamov earned his 79th win for the Avalanche, tying
Mario Gosselin for sixth place in franchise history ... Defenseman
Zach Redmond made his season debut, played 12:17 and had two shots, three hits and an assist ...
Brad Stuart played a game-high 25:17 and was plus-2.
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