Colorado Avalanche shutout Stanley Cup defenders Boston Bruins 1-0 -NHL Match Update
Colorado’s goalie, Semyon Varlamov, earned his fifth career shutout by blocking all 30 shots taken by Boston Bruins on his net to lift Avalanche to victory over the Stanley Cup defenders, 1-0, on Monday night, October 10, at a sold-out TD Garden in Boston
Massachusetts.
It was Boston’s third straight home game of the new 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, and their second defeat coming out of a offseason which was filled with celebrating their Stanley Cup championship.
Boston’s second goalie, Tuukka Rask, who is not termed as a backup to Tim Thomas by the Bruins management, managed to block 35 shots, but fell short on a single one during the final period.
"I thought we had some good urgency to start the game", Colorado coach Joe Sacco said. "The guys were really ready to play. They responded well. That's a tough team to play against. They're a physical team and they use their size very well".
Bruins managed to kill off three straight first period penalties as Zdeno Chara was penalised twice, the first for cross checking and the other near the end for hooking. Adam McQuaid was sent booking 3:30 into the first for delaying the game.
Claude Julien accepted that his team got off to a slow start but also regarding the other team as being more pumped up and ready to go at it.
"We got outworked by a team that was a lot more hungry than we were tonight", said Julien. "And throughout the game I felt our team was second on the puck. We're losing the races, and also whenever we got there and got in to battle, they certainly were a
lot hungrier than we were”.
Colorado’s veteran right winger, Milan Hejduk, scored the game-winner nearly midway through the final period of regulation off a pass by Jan Hejda and Matt Duchene, which killed Tuukka Rask’s attempt at first shutout of the season.
Avalanche will continue their five-game road trip against Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday, while Boston Bruins also leave home to face Carolina Hurricanes on the same day.
Tags: