Matt Duchene insists he wasn't pressing, wasn't panicking over his slow start before he scored two goals Wednesday in the Avalanche's 6-3 win against Calgary.
"I actually wasn't, I really wasn't," he said when I asked him. "My focus was putting as much pucks on net as possible. I think I've had (10) shots the last two games. Eventually it's going to hit something and go in, it's going to bounce to somebody and go in. It's a different league now, you can't just look for plays all the time, you have to kind of fire the puck at the net. That's kind of the culture of the game, unfortunately now, but you have to adapt to it."
Duchene didn't give up on his own rebound when he scored late in the first period -- his first even-strength goal of the season -- for a 1-0 Colorado lead and he deflected in Francois Beauchemin's shot on a power play for a 5-3 advantage late in the third, 1:28 after Jarome Iginla won a 1-on-1 battle for the puck along the boards and fed Nathan MacKinnon for the tie-breaking goal.
Duchene finished with a season-high six shots on goal -- the Avalanche had a season-best 42 -- and his first two-goal game since the 2013-14 season. Linemates Carl Sodberberg (six shots) and Gabriel Landeskog (four) also kept Flames goalie Karri Ramo busy.
"I feel more relieved about the win, to be honest," Duchene said after the Avalanche ended a four-game home losing streak (0-3-1). "I knew at some point it was going to go in for me. I just had too many opportunities. Being in your seventh year, you kind of get that. I remember my second year I had three goals in the first 19 (games) and I was panicking a little bit. I was worried that I wasn't going to score 10 that year."
Duchene had a career-high 27 goals that 2010-11 season along with 40 assists in 80 games.
"I've been through that now and I knew it was going to come at some point," he said. "If I just kept on playing and shooting the puck, it was going to go in."
With three goals and two assists in 12 games this season, Duchene is behind last season's pace when he had three goals and six assists in the first dozen games and ended with 21 goals and 34 assists in 82 games.
Maybe Wednesday's performance is exactly what Duchene needs to get his game and his confidence back. The Avalanche will need him to score on a consistent basis for any chance of climbing into the playoff race. With a 4-7-1 record and nine points, they already trail Winnipeg by six points for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
When the Avalanche turned a 3-1 second-period lead into a 3-3 tie early in the third period, it had all the makings of another disastrous outcome.
"We've been working really hard and going through a lot of stuff," Duchene said. "We have a lot of character in this room, a lot of fight. Three or four times (previously) we could have (pulled out a win).
"I think that opening night kind of scarred us a little bit," he added, referring to the Avalanche's third-period meltdown against Minnesota, which turned a 4-1 deficit into a 5-4 win. "Every time we were in a tie game we were kind of tight and gripping the sticks instead of staying the course and playing the kind of hockey we can play."
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MacKinnon had another terrific game. He seems faster than ever, had two assists to go along with the winning goal, and he won 10 of 16 faceoffs. He's leading the team in scoring with 13 points (five goals, eight assists) and has a plus-3 rating for the season.
"Scoring six goals is refreshing," he said. "We’ve really been focusing on our offense. I thought we’ve been generating some pretty good chances, but this time they went in. We got some bounces, but I truly believe the game is fair. We’ve been working and doing the right things, it’s just mental collapses that we avoided.
"It's going to take a lot to get back into the playoff picture, but we can't hang our heads. We're going to have to be solid for the last 70 games. We need better results, we just need to find a way to get it done. You have to look at yourself in the mirror and be accountable for what we're doing. It's not good enough, obviously, our record. Losing always kind of puts a cloud over the sky, but once you win everything seems better. I think we'll turn this around."
Speaking of looking in a mirror, MacKinnon did just that to shave off his beard Tuesday night.
"It was getting a little too Amish for me," he said.
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Iginla's two goals were the first in six career games against his former Flames team. He also had an assist, giving him a team-high six goals for the season and 11 points. His 595 NHL goals are six behind Jari Kurri for 18th place on the all-time list.
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The Avalanche defense contributed eight points -- Erik Johnson's shorthanded goal in the third period and seven assists. Johnson also had an assist after failing to produce a point since the second game of the season. Tyson Barrie had three assists, giving him five in the past two games, and Beauchemin had two assists. Nick Holden, who got caught in deep on two of Calgary's goals, kept the puck in the Flames zone before Iginla set up MacKinnon for the winner.
"We hurt just as bad as the people following the team when we're not getting wins," Johnson said. "It's not a fun feeling to lose. All we want to do is win and be successful, and we're going to continue to work hard and we're going to string some wins together and get on a roll here."
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Coach Patrick Roy said earlier in the week that Semyon Varlamov would start in goal Thursday in Arizona, and that Reto Berra would play Friday against the New York Rangers in the Avalanche's final home game until Nov. 25.