Avs Beat Red Wings in SO; Duchene Notches First

What an incredible topic for a first post!

After being dominated for two periods, the Colorado Avalanche were given a shot of life in the 3rd period courtesy of Cody McLeod and its two teenagers, Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene. McLeod scored two goals, both of which were set up by beautiful passes from O’Reilly, and Duchene scored his 1st NHL goal in a 4-3 shootout victory against the struggling Detroit Red Wings.

Duchene’s eerily Sakic-esque wrist shot flew past Red Wings’ goaltender Chris Osgood to tie the game 2-2 in the 3rd period, a goal that surely must taste even sweeter since it came against the team he grew up cheering against as an Avalanche fan himself.

“It’s nice to get the monkey off my back there,” Duchene told The Denver Post, after he had to wait till his 8th NHL game to net his 1st goal, despite several chances. “The most important thing was that we won that game. It wouldn’t have felt nearly as good if we lost.”

The play of the two 18-year-olds has certainly been a pleasant  surprise for the surging Avalanche (6-1-1), but no one has had a bigger impact on the success of the team than goaltender Craig Anderson, who had 28 saves against the Red Wings, including 21 in the onslaught that was the first two periods. The Avs turned it around in the 3rd and overtime however, doubling the Red Wings’ shots 16-8. In the shootout, Anderson stopped 2 of 3 Detroit shooters, including star Henrik Zetterberg. Osgood was beaten by backhand shots by both Marek Svatos and Milan Hejduk.

Wojtek Wolski was noticeably absent from the shootout line-up, and though he may have been the 3rd shooter we didn’t get to see, it is interesting that Wolski was kept out of large chunks of the game, totaling just over 10 minutes of total ice time. Wolski is the all-time NHL leader in shootout scoring percentage.

McLeod has continued to impress. On top of his two goals, McLeod also fought former Av Brad May.

Justin Abdelkader, Todd “The Villain” Bertuzzi, and Valtteri Filppula scored for Detroit in regulation while Jason Williams added one in the shootout.

The Colorado Avalanche will head home to Denver for a few days before continuing their road trip on Wednesday against the division rival Minnesota Wild (1-6).