Mile High Sticking
Fansided

Colorado Avalanche 3 Stars of the Week, March 9

By Nadia Archuleta

facebooktwitterreddit

More from Avalanche News

The Colorado Avalanche have started out March strong, winning all three of their games in regulation. They beat the Pittsburgh Penguins at home 3-1. They then went on a two-day road trip that saw them beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-0 and the Minnesota Wild 3-2. Yes, they finally beat the hated Minnesota Wild.

Weeks like this, it’s usually pretty hard to choose the three stars of the week. There were a couple decisions that I had to make, but three players really stood out: Jarome Iginla, Gabriel Landeskog and Semyon Varlamov. Plus, there’s an honorary star this week.

#3: Jarome Iginla

Veteran winger Jarome Iginla had points in all three games. Iginla ended another mini power play goal drought for the Avs by scoring one just 13 seconds into the second period against the Penguins — and winning some luck y Avalanche fan a car.

Iginla also got the game-winning goal — the first of the game — during a 5-on-3 power play against the Columbus Blue Jackets. While Iginla didn’t get any goals himself against the Wild, he did assist on energy player Cody McLeod‘s historic first period goal and captain Gabriel Landeskog’s game-winning power play goal.

#2: Gabriel Landeskog

Remember back in December when Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog went the whole month without scoring a goal? Well, he said back then that goals tended to occur in bunches for him. Guess what — he was right. He has nine goals in the last 12 games, and 15 points total in that time.

In the last three games, he has a goal in each, including the game-winner against the rival Minnesota Wild. That alone would have earned him a spot on this list, but it also came after his three-point night against the Pittsburgh Penguins — that game after which he christened the Avs’ new phrase, “Balls out all the way.”

Landeskog was more circumspect after the Wild game (especially considering he got tossed at the conclusion of the last Wild game):

"“For us, it was a matter of not finding excuses and we knew what we had to do. We needed those two points.”"

#1: Semyon Varlamov

A week ago I wrote a post questioning whether goalie Semyon Varlamov was in a slump. I’m going to go ahead and answer that question now — no. Varlamov faced 29 shots from the super-talented Penguins, stopping all but one.  He also stopped all but one of the 30 shots he faced by the Wild.

He stopped all 44 shots the Blue Jackets threw at him to earn the shut out. He kept the Avs in all three of those games so that the forwards’ scoring could ultimately carry the team to victory.

Honorary Star: Erik Johnson

For still being on the injured reserve list, cornerstone defenseman Erik Johnson has had an eventful week. He set the Avs Nation aflutter when he was finally spotted on the ice, both before the Penguins game for pictures and after a recent practice.

He endeared himself to Avalanche fans when he stood up to a  Minnesota Wild Twitter troll after participating in a charity event.

He then endeared himself even further by standing up to the squawking Wild fans and media were doing in response to head coach Patrick Roy‘s calling out of Minnesota Star Tribune writer Michael Russo:

For that he earns an honorary star of the week.

Next: Colorado Avalanche 3 Stars of the Week, March 1?

More from Mile High Sticking

Home/Avalanche News