Jonas Hiller saves 43 as Anaheim Ducks win fifth straight, 3-2 over Colorado Avalanche - NHL Update
The Anaheim Ducks continued their recent resurgence up the Western Conference standings with a close 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 at the Honda Center.
The Ducks are one of the most inform teams in the National Hockey League (NHL) with a string of victories that have vanquished the memories of their poor start to the season as they have won eight out of their previous ten games.
The Ducks still remain in the bottom half of the Western Conference but slowly are moving up with a 18-22-7 record and 43 points and this victory was their fifth straight win.
The Colorado Avalanche entered the game on the back of a 3-1 win over Los Angeles Kings the day before and it did not seem that the previous night’s exertions made any impact on their performance.
The Avalanche were on the offensive throughout the game as they outshot the Ducks 45-18 but Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller was on song and his mammoth 43 saves in the game shutout the Avalanche for most of the game.
Hiller’s brilliant performance was key to the Ducks victory. Even though the Avalanche pegged back their opponents to a single goal late in the third period Hiller kept the Ducks lead intact to secure an important win.
The Avalanche remains at eighth in the Western Conference after the loss with a 26-22-2 record and 54 points.
The Ducks went a goal up early in the first period against the run of play. Bobby Ryan scored a shorthanded goal at 2:49 for his eighteenth of the season after breaking away into space.
The Ducks maintained their single goal advantage throughout the first period even though they were outshot 15-2 as Hiller put in a brilliant performance.
Hiller would continue to make the all important saves keeping the Avalanche out in the second period to maintain his side’s advantage.
"The whole team is playing its best lately, so that makes it easier on me," Hiller said.
The Ducks doubled their advantage just 20 seconds into the third period.
Ryan Getzlaf beat Avalanche goaltender Jean-Sebastian Giguere who made 15 saves during the game. Teemu Selanne took control of the puck on the power play rushing into the Avalanche’s half before turning around and feeding the ball to Getzlaf who made no
mistake to beat Giguere.
The Ducks went up by 3-0 three minutes later as Getzlaf turned provider feeding the puck to the oncoming Bobby Ryan for his second of the game.
It looked like Hiller would remain unbeaten and secure a brilliant shutout but the Avalanche finally made their huge shots on goal advantage count.
Ryan O’Reilly made it 3-1 at 14:51 after good work by Gabriel Landeskog to setup the goal. Milan Hejduk’s power play goal two minutes later made the remaining four minutes of the game highly interesting with the score at 3-2.
Hiller though did not let any more shots into his net and the Ducks held on with a close one goal lead to gain a fifth straight win.
Anaheim will now travel to Dallas to face the Stars on Tuesday while the Avalanche will face an equally inconsistent Minnesota Wild side.
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