The Avalanche's 4-2 win against Edmonton on Thursday night at the Pepsi Center was significant for a number of reasons, and not just because the Oilers rolled to an 8-2 victory when the teams met up north on Dec. 5.
This was the Avalanche's final home game until Dec. 29 when Winnipeg visits Denver, and the next two games before the Christmas break -- at Los Angeles and San Jose -- will be difficult indeed.
"It was an important win for us," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "You don't want to use words like 'crucial' or 'must win,' but it was an important two points for us. Going into L.A. (on Saturday) and after that San Jose will be a good challenge for our team. We've been playing well on the road, but it's always more fun going there (after a win)."
Thursday's win didn't come easily. The outcome wasn't decided until Matt Duchene completed a three-point night by scoring into an empty net with 1.1 seconds to play. The Avalanche didn't take its first lead until Max Talbot scored a shorthanded goal with 1:32 remaining in the second period.
Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov, who allowed all eight goals on 28 shots in the previous meeting between the teams, made 14 of his 27 saves in the third period.
"It was a nightmare, especially for me," Varlamov said of the first game. "But it was a long time ago and you forget about it and just look forward. Of course Edmonton came out harder than in the first and second periods trying to score goals. I thought we played solid defensively."
The Avalanche, third in the Central Division with a 23-10-1 record and 47 points, gained two points on fourth-place Minnesota. The Wild, who lost 5-2 to Pittsburgh, have 45 points and have played three more games.
Ryan O'Reilly and Talbot scored 3:28 apart late in the second period to give the Avalanche the lead for good. O'Reilly, who had one goal in the previous 12 games, tied the game with 5 minutes remaining when he completed a pretty passing play with Nathan MacKinnon and Duchene.
Talbot scored on a two-on-one rush with Marc-Andre Cliche with Patrick Bordeleau in the penalty box for interference. Cliche skated down right wing after an Oilers turnover and passed across to Talbot, who went to his backhand and slid the puck by goalie Devan Dubnyk's right skate.
"Any time you get a goal like that, it's always huge, but the main thing to do is to kill the penalty, which we were able to do," said Talbot, who has 16 shorthanded goals in his NHL career. "Getting a goal there is obviously extra. Back in the day, I think I had five (shorthanded goals) one year. It's always nice to get some chances and it was nice to put it back there."
Talbot said the Avalanche was in no position to take the Oilers lightly, even though they sit in the Western Conference basement and now have lost five games in a row. Edmonton won five of the previous six games against Colorado and Dubnyk had an 8-3-1 career record against the Avalanche.
"You can’t just look at their record and say, ‘Oilers are in town,’ " Talbot said. "We knew what happened last time when we played there, and we came up ready.…
The Avalanche outshot the Oilers 17-5 in the first period yet trailed 1-0 on a goal by Taylor Hall, who sped down the right side to score his fourth goal against Varlamov in two games this season.
The Avalanche tied the game at 1:07 of the second period on a goal by Tyson Barrie during a five-on-three power play. The Oilers' Sam Gagner was assessed a major cross-checking penalty and a game misconduct at 18:32 of the first period for striking Paul Stastny in the face after a faceoff and Hall was given an unsportsmanlike penalty at the 20-minute mark.
Oilers coach Dallas Eakins wasn't exactly pleased that Gagner originally was given a minor penalty, and he said Hall didn't deserve his penalty, saying Hall "didn't say a word" to any of the officials.
"Listen, the Gagner penalty was a penalty," Eakins said. "I thought it was by accident when that stick came up. I thought you could see it immediately, when the guy went down, he was concerned. When you mean to do it, you skate away with a smirk on your face. All I was looking for from the official was the explanation, that he went over to the box, signaled two minutes with his finger, did the crosscheck, put Sam in the box. Suddenly, everything changed after the Jumbotron showed it. I was looking for an explanation."
As for the Hall penalty: "Another player said it that was going down the hallway and it was nothing terrible," Eakins said. "To light up a guy, to put you down five on three, I came out at the start of the period, after a cooling-off period, as we're supposed to do as coaches, and was basically told by the ref to ... I can't say what he said to me. Just looking for simple explanations but couldn't get them."
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Duchene assisted on the Avalanche's first two goals and has four goals and six assists in the past five games. "I was in a huge slump before this so you just stick with it to try and get back to basics. You just want to keep it going here," said Duchene, who has 16 goals and 15 assists in 31 games overall.
Roy on Duchene: "He's been outstanding. He's playing really well offensively and defensively. That's the thing I like about his game. You can have players that play really well offensively, but if they're not capable of playing good defense, it hurts their game. Right now Dutchie is playing well in both zones."
Jan Hejda and Erik Johnson have been the team's top defensemen by far, but this wasn't their best game. They were caught deep in the first period when Hall scored, and Hall took the puck away from Johnson after a poor pass from Hejda and set up Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for a second-period goal and 2-1 Oilers lead.
Barrie has two goals and one assist in a three-game point-scoring streak, matching his career high ... Talbot's shorthanded goal was the Avalanche's second of the season. Alex Tanguay had the other Oct. 12 at Washington ... Stastny played in his 499th NHL game ... O'Reilly and Jamie McGinn each played their 299th career game.