Persistence pays off for Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche caught the Detroit Red Wings off guard on Tuesday rallying to tie the score late in the third en route to a 5-4 shoot-out victory. The Avalanche also surprised the
Red Wings in the shots department by out-shooting Detroit in their own building 38-28.
"To get that many shots in this building, it was a real good win for us," Colorado coach Joe Sacco said.
Red Wings forward Johan Franzen opened the scoring with his first of two in the game just over two minutes into the first period. However, the Avalanche were able to outwork the Wings
in the first period and were rewarded late in the period when David Jones scored with just over four minutes remaining.
"We did a good job of keeping it simple and outworking them," Jones said.
Detroit was quick to get on the board in the second period, as Pavel Datsyuk’s power play goal gave the Wings a 2-1 lead just under three minutes in. It was Datsyuk’s 200th NHL goal. Franzen
then gave the Wings a 3-1 lead with his second of the night midway through the period. Much like the first period however, the Avalanche kept on pressing and were once again rewarded late as Ryan O’Reilly was able to cut the lead to 3-2 with less than a minute
left in the period.
"That goal got us back into the game," Sacco said.
Daniel Winnik of the Avalanche and Wings forward Patrick Eaves traded goals early in the third, but the Avalanche were once again able to tie the score when Jones picked up his second
of the game with 8:24 left in the third period.
After an uneventful five minutes of overtime, Brandon Yip was the only player to score in the shoot-out in the sixth round to give the Avalanche the 5-4 win.
Wings goalie Josh Howard turned away 34 shots in a losing effort and credited the Avalanche for their persistence.
"They didn't stop. Even when they got down they kept coming hard," Howard said. "They don't quit. They're a hard working team, they're very fast through the neutral zone."
Detroit coach Mike Babcock added that turnovers had an outcome on the result.
"Their first three (goals) were all turnovers. If I'm not mistaken, even the fourth one was a turnover. You can't turn the puck over," he said. "They did a good job of not turning the
puck over. They went north-south and we went more east-west and when you do that you get more turnovers ... and it ends up in your net."
Tags: