Colorado Avalanche Memorable Moments against Dallas Stars

The Colorado Avalanche won an exciting game against the Dallas Stars, thus winning the series 3-2. Colorado heads into a home stand next.

The Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 last night. The two teams have now played all five of their games against each other. With the win last night, Colorado has now won the series 3-2.

The game was the first back for both teams after the NHL-mandated bye-week. The Avalanche looked a little rusty going into the first period. However, once both teams got their skating legs under them, the game was filled with a lot of back and forth action.

The Avalanche are now seven games over .500. They have exceeded their points and win total at Game 42 over all of last season.

Color analyst Peter McNab said of the Avalanche:

"“They’re coming in like a tidal wave in the Central Division.”"

The Avalanche haven’t wiggled their way back into a playoff berth… yet. However, they have games in hand and lots of momentum. The win against the Stars marks their sixth in a row.

There were a couple-three moments that were especially memorable to me in last night’s game.

Disallowed Goal

I’m sure there’s a website to look up how many disallowed goals the Colorado Avalanche have this season, but I think it would be too depressing to look it up.

The officials and the War Room in Toronto took a long time to review the following play:

To be honest, when you read the rule book, clearly the goal should have been disallowed (69.4):

"“If an attacking player initiates any contact with a goalkeeper, other than incidental contact, while the goalkeeper is outside his goal crease, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.”"

Ok, that’s pretty clear. Even I am not going to say Blake Comeau made only “incidental contact.” I am going to say Ben Bishop dove like he was at the deep end of the pool.

My question is this: Why is that the rule? The rulebook goes on to state that a goalie is not “fair game” just because he’s out of the crease. Ok, well, then Jonathan Bernier and Semyon Varlamov shouldn’t spend any time in their crease on the rush. Get them skating up the ice. Get them the puck. Any contanct to try and stop them will be more than incidental, so they can waltz right into the offensive zone.

McNab thought the same way:

"“Goal tenders can play the puck, but they can’t be touched. They can just wander around back there stick handling.”"

Also, this incident reaffirms my conviction that the on-ice officials are consistently off. The rule is very clear. The officials should have ruled it a no-goal right away. They shouldn’t have had to take over seven minutes, including a very lengthy call to Toronto, to review this goal.

Ok, moving on to something more positive — Alexander Kerfoot‘s goal.

Alexander Kerfoot Goal

Rookie Alexander Kerfoot either scores the ugliest or the prettiest of goals. His tally against the Dallas Stars was one of the latter.

Kerfoot picks up the puck at the red line. He stick handles past the Dallas defender — All Star John Klingberg, by the way — and cuts into the middle. As he makes a laser shot that flies past Bishop, he does a perfect pirouette about three feet up in the air, lands on his hip, and gets back to his skates before hitting the boards:

No, really, watch that part of the goal:

Kerfoot also had a hand in the game-winning goal by

Nathan MacKinnon

, too. He made a nifty little one-touch pass to MacKinnon:

Peter McNab said of Kerfoot:

"“I didn’t expect him to be that guy who emerged among [the other rookies].”"

I didn’t either. When I read that the Colorado Avalanche had signed Alexander Kerfoot, my reception was lukewarm at best. I thought he’d spend most of the season in the AHL.

Boy, was I wrong, and boy, and I glad. I just love Kerfoot’s game. It adds so much to the team. He had a goal and an assist last night and two assists against the Minnesota Wild before the break.

Related Story: Kerfoot's 7 Points in 4 Games

I made a wager with our sister site over at Blackout Dallas — loser had to make a haiku for the winner. They came up with a very creative response:

I must admit, mine would have been a lot saltier.

Next: Matching the Half-Season to Goals and Predictions

The Colorado Avalanche don’t have to wait long until they play again — they’ll host the Anaheim Ducks at the Pepsi Center. In fact, they have three games at home before a tough roadie. It’s an important home stand, to say the least.

If the Avs play the way they have been, they’re set themselves up pretty well to get back into a playoff position.