Vancouver Canucks hold on to defeat Colorado Avalanche 2-1
Roberto Luongo made 31 saves, as the Vancouver Canucks held on to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 on Sunday night, at the Pepsi Centre. The Canucks have won five consecutive games, and improved to 14-1-2 over their previous 17 play-offs.
Alexandre Bolduc and Mason Raymond each scored a goal, while Tanner Glass and Kevin Bieksa had assists for Vancouver, who enhanced their lead in the Northwest Division to 8 points over Colorado.
With less than two minutes to play in the first period, Bolduc opened the scoring for the Canucks with his first NHL goal, and gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead after Vancouver killed off one of their 9 penalties.
Glass took Kevin Porter’s wide-open shot and fed it to Bolduc, who snapped a wrist shot from the left circle through Craig Anderson's pads. Luongo said after the game, “It’s nice to see. We’ve got guys chipping in every night, it’s not always the same guys
producing. You need that over the course of an 82-game season. It’s not always going to be the same line.”
Luongo was sharp during the first period, and stopped some big shots in the second period too.
“He’s (Luongo) been outstanding and he’s pulled some games out for us,” Raymond said. “It’s a club that thinks its great playing for a guy like Louie.”
Raymond gave Vancouver a two-goal edge with his eighth goal of the season in the fourth minute of the final period. He got a loose puck in the slot from Bolduc and fired it past the Avalanche netminder. Raymond said, “I’m glad to be back and contribute to
continue this streak. I felt good. I didn’t log a ton of minutes, but overall I felt pretty good.”
With over six minutes remaining in third period, Paul Stastny put the Avalanche on the board and cut the deficit to 2-1 with his 15th goal of the season, by chipping the puck over Luongo. Luongo reached back with his glove to pull the puck out of the air,
and the on-ice official declared no goal, but a video review verified that his shot crossed the goal line.
Stastny said, “I saw it hit the side of the netting. I knew it was a goal right away.” Colorado carried on peppering the Canucks netminder down the stretch, and pulled Anderson for an extra skater with over a minute left, but could not come up with an equaliser.
Colorado Coach Joe Sacco told reporters after the game, “Two games in a row we ran into some pretty good goaltending. Tonight, he had a pretty good night. We had chances, but weren’t able to capitalise.”
There were 16 penalties in the game, including nine in the second period, but both teams failed to capitalise. The Avalanche was 0 for 6 on the power play, while the Canucks were 0 for 5. Meanwhile, Anderson turned aside 27 shots for Colorado in the defeat.
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