Colorado Avalanche Stymie Ottawa Senators 5-2

A good night all around for the Avalanche, but especially for the “old guys,” who contributed 4 out of the 5 goals on the scoresheet for the Avs on this fine winter’s eve.

The Avalanche finally have broken the point-per-game barrier in the standings, and now sit at 42 points at the halfway point this season (41 games). Their record sits at 17-16-8, although they are 8-3-2 in their last 13 contests.

Tonight, the scoring was started off by Jarome Iginla, who entered the night trailing Mike Bossy by three goals, for 20th on the all-time list. The play was started by Ryan O’Reilly. Factor made a nice play to rub a Senators defenseman off the puck, which created some chaos in the offensive zone for the Avs. This led to an O’Reilly steal moments later in the high slot. The Avalanche got a nice cycle going, and Alex Tanguay made a nice pass to Iginla in the slot. Iggy didn’t miss. Iggy-dance, shake those pants. We’re off and running.

The Avalanche weren’t done in the first. Matt Duchene won a face-off cleaner than Irish spring has ever gotten a man back to Jan Hejda, who slid the bacon over to Brad Stuart. Stuart bombed a slapper home from the point. Avs over-35 club 2, Senators 0.

The second period saw the Avalanche get a little sloppy in their own zone. Cody McLeod and Erik Johnson failed to coordinate who would be playing defense on Mark Stone as he drove the net, so they compromised, and neither played defense. Erik Karlsson took advantage, and laced a pass to Stone who had an easy finish to cut the Avs lead in half.

The Avalanche, particularly Erik Johnson, were quick to respond. EJ took over the NHL lead in goal-scoring by a d-man with his 11th marker of the season, after a nifty little feed from Ryan O’Reilly allowed Johnson to tee it up. Fortunately for EJ, no golf carts were involved.

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The Avalanche extended the lead to 4-1 early in the third period, as the old-man club struck again. The goal came on a power-play (Avalanche mini-miracle) just 23 seconds in, and once again, it was Alex Tanguay with the dish and Jarome Iginla with the finish. Much like a fine wine, this couple has gotten better together with age. So long as Tanguay keeps serving up dishes like he has been to Iggy, you won’t see anyone on the Avalanche whining.

The Senators quickly answered, with a Bobby Ryan goal. The Avalanche quickly-quicklier answered that goal with a Danny Briere, I just wanted to get in on the old-men scoring action tally. The explosive three-goal in 2:40 start to the third, gave way to a much calmer flow the rest of the way, and the Avalanche held on to win 5-2.

Semyon Varlamov once again was stellar, with 36 saves on 38 shots.

Austin’s Audacious Analysis

• Ryan O’Reilly had a really good game I thought. He was a puck-hound, in classic Factor fashion, and created turnovers and havoc all night. He was rewarded for his efforts, with two appearances on the scoresheet, but as a whole I thought he was the best forward for the Avalanche tonight. Iginla had the pretty finishes. Tanguay was the facilitator. O’Reilly was the workhorse and the engine for everything that went well for the Avalanche.

• This wasn’t exactly a dominant performance for the Avalanche, despite their ability to run away with things on the scoreboard. Ottawa still managed to rack up 38 shots to the Avs’ 21. Somehow I still feel confident about the way the Avalanche played. They were opportunistic, buried their chances, and Semyon Varlamov just seems like he is primed to have one of those stretches where he is going to find a way to win every night.

• To elaborate, I get the feeling the Avalanche are about to get hot. They are already starting to percolate, with wins in 7 of their past 10 games. Varlamov looks locked in, and the offense seems to be starting to figure some things out. Matt Duchene and Gabe Landeskog are going to bust out of their slumps in the next game or two. Count that. I just have a really good feeling about these next dozen games or so. I think come mid February, this team is going to be right in the thick of the playoff race.

• Semyon Varlamov. This guy really is the MVP of the team, and you can almost feel the confidence from his performance in Chicago carry over to tonight. I just got a calmer and more confident vibe from the way the team played tonight. Something feels different to me right now, and I think that this team has their mojo back now that their number one gun is back in net.