National Hockey League Thursday night match roundup -NHL Feature Part 4
Colorado Avalanche rebound with 3-2 win over Phoenix Coyotes
Colorado was on a five-game winning streak before the Winnipeg Jets inflicted a loss to them and washed away all their hard work by the Avalanche were determined to rebound by edging the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2, on Thursday night, December 29, 2011, to move
up in the Western Conference.
The Avalanche is now sitting at the 10th number spot, tied with Dallas Stars with 41 points. Their next game could mean the difference between falling down and moving up above the playoff division line.
Colorado has been lucky in the sense that their victories have come from a one point lead until the end, which means that they will have to continue scoring and avoid that possible moment where the competition could rally and take the match from their hands.
"I don't want to say it's a one-goal league, but it's pretty close to a one-goal league", Avalanche coach, Joe Sacco, said. "More often than not you're going to be in those types of games. That's the way it is right now. It's getting down to the second half
of the year and things tighten up pretty quickly. These are hard-fought games, close games".
Kevin Porter and Stefan Elliott potted two for Colorado in the opening period while Mikkel Boedker was the only player to add a goal for the Coyotes to end the first 20 minutes with a 2-1 difference in favour of the Avalanche.
Mikkel Boedker tied the game for Phoenix with less than three minutes to go in the second round, forcing a tough competition as both teams entered the final period levelled 2-2.
Matt Duchene left the match after hurting his right knee in the first period and did not make a comeback throughout the remainder of the contest, which signalled a possible injury which coach, Sacco, termed as something they would get re-evaluated in the
upcoming days.
Gabriel Landeskog’s eighth of the regular season midway through the third was the game-winning shot for Colorado, after which Phoenix failed to add anymore.
Vancouver Canucks continue to dominate with 5-2 victory over Anaheim Ducks
Vancouver captured the second number spot and tied the number one team in the Western Conference after their third straight victory over the Anaheim Ducks, 5-2, at the sold-out Honda Center in Anaheim, California, United States.
The Canucks are tied with the Chicago Blackhawks with the league leading amount of points, 50, which now certainly makes them look as a team that really did nearly win the Stanley Cup during the 2011 NHL Finals against Boston Bruins.
Happy at his teams’ performance nowadays, Vancouver coach, Alain Vigneault, just hopes that they can maintain their newly found momentum.
"I thought we came out with a lot of jump and real good execution in the first 20 minutes that really gave us good momentum for the game", Vigneault said. "We were able to capitalize on a couple of their mistakes".
Henrik Sedin and Cody Hodgson scored nearly 17 minutes apart for a strong 2-0 lead entering the second period, which Mason Raymond and Daniel Sedin managed to extend to 4-0 by the time the first 40 minutes came to a close.
Anaheim was certainly on the edge entering the final period, knowing that they would first need to score four back-to-back in order to just level the match and continue scoring so that they would win, but that is not how it played out.
Bobby Ryan and Nick Bonino tried hard and managed to add two straight but Daniel Sedin’s second of the night and final of the match was enough to kill of the Ducks scoring spree.
Vancouver is hot and hope to stay that way when they visit Los Angeles to face-off against the Kings on Saturday while Anaheim hosts the Colorado Avalanche on the same day.
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