Pittsburgh Penguins dominate third period to win 6-3 over Colorado Avalanche -NHL Match Update
Colorado is still in its worst slump of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season after kicking it off with five straight victories, as the Avalanche lost their second straight to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-3, after giving up a 3-1 lead, Tuesday night, November 15, 2011, at the sold-out CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
Seeing how easy his team gave up their lead, Avalanche head coach, Joe Sacco, was certainly disappointed.
"We started to take the game a little bit to them", coach Sacco said. "After that, we got caught back on our heels and they took the game to us. That's why you play three periods. You have to give Pittsburgh credit, they made a hard push".
Jay McClement scored with less than six minutes to go in the first period to give Colorado the lead while Matt Duchene scored his seventh of the season to extend it three minutes later.
Pittsburgh got their first of the night nearly a minute later with Jordan Staal potting his ninth while David Jones ended off the period with another one for Colorado with 16 seconds left to play.
Arron Asham and Colorado’s Cody McLeod exchanged fists early in the first and were awarded a five-minute major penalty each to put the two teams on 4-on-4 mode. After that, Colorado gave two straight power play opportunities to the home team but they failed to capitalise one either one.
Pascal Dupuis brought the Penguins back into the match with a single goal in the second round while it was Brooks Orpik who started the shooting spree 1:12 into the third period followed straight by Evgeni Malkin, James Neal on a power play for his 12th and Kris Letang at the midway mark.
"The first 30 minutes we came out and played to our identity as a team", Sacco added. "After that, you have to give Pittsburgh credit, they made a hard push".
The Pittsburgh Penguins have their next two contests on the road, starting off with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, followed by the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
Colorado Avalanche has one more on Thursday against the Minnesota Wild before they return home for six straight.
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