Colorado Avalanche look to keep pace in playoff race with a win over Edmonton Oilers - NHL Preview
Colorado Avalanche will travel to Edmonton to face the Oilers on Friday, February 17th, 2012, at the Rexall Place as they look to kick start their challenge for a playoff berth.
The Avalanche is struggling for wins this month and has lost their previous two road games dropping down to 11th in the Western Conference with 60 points.
All is not lost though as they trail eighth placed Los Angeles Kings by just five points and an away win over an inconsistent Edmonton side will be just the tonic needed to jump start their playoff challenge once again.
Colorado started off their current four game road trip with two straight losses and results need to change fast for the Avalanche.
The Oilers on the other hand are 3-3 in February, which includes a huge 8-4 mauling at home of the Chicago Blackhawks. Recent results though have been poor with Edmonton winning just one out their last four matches.
They face a tough side in Colorado and would be vary of their opponents attacking threat.
Avalanche (28-26-4, 60 pts)
Colorado’s previous two road games did not go according to plan as they lost 3-2 in overtime to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday following it up with another big 3-1 defeat to Northwest division rivals Vancouver Canucks.
The Avalanche played pretty well throughout the game and were tied at 1-1 with the Canucks for most of the time. Things changed for the worse though in the final period as the Canucks scored two goals five minutes apart late in the third period to win the
game.
Colorado coach Joe Sacco did not fault his team’s performance and instead praised their fighting spirit after the match.
"I thought we regrouped. We dug in. We faced a little bit of adversity there, but I liked the way our guys responded being short-handed on the bench."
"It's disappointing, because we were in the game. We played well, we played hard, but just couldn't come away with a point."
Oilers (22-28-6, 50 pts)
Edmonton followed up their big 4-3 overtime win over Ottawa Senators on Saturday with the same score-line against Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, albeit this time the Oilers were on the losing side.
The Oilers trail their Friday night opponents by 10 points and are far behind in the Western Conference table to make any push for a playoff berth.
Edmonton though has not stopped fighting and put in a good performance against Toronto as they battled back from twice, first from a deficit of two goals and then made it 3-3 in the final minutes of the third period to send the game to overtime.
Right Wing Jordan Eberle who scored the tying goal was disappointed by the loss after doing so well to get back into the game.
"We battled back and tied it up, and then they get that power play goal and again we battled back and tied it up, and anything can happen in overtime," Eberle told EdmontonOilers.com.
Predictions
Close game but Colorado Avalanche has the advantage.
Goals should be flying in from all sides as both defences are relatively weak.
Tags: