Torrid pace puts Avs in first place

Colorado tied atop division after eighth win in row

Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

No, that isn't a misprint in today's Northwest Division standings.

The Colorado Avalanche really is in a first-place tie with Calgary and Vancouver, though the Flames have played two fewer games and the Canucks one.

Even so, considering how the Avalanche was stumbling around just a few weeks ago, it's a pretty remarkable achievement.

The Avalanche used its eighth consecutive victory, a 5-3 triumph against the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center, to get there.

The streak is the Avalanche's longest since a nine-game run in October 2000.

"I know we've really enhanced our positioning, as opposed to it being life or death hanging onto that eighth or ninth spot (in the Western Conference)," coach Joel Quenneville said.

"Now, all of a sudden, we're looking at trying to win the division. It's a realistic objective before the Olympic break, trying to be first in our division."

It can't hurt if Alex Tanguay, who wasn't named to Canada's Olympic team, continues to rack up points and Milan Hejduk returns to his goals-scoring form of recent seasons.

With Maple Leafs and Team Canada coach Pat Quinn looking on, Tanguay collected one goal and one assist, while Hejduk ended a six-game drought with two second-period power-play goals that came 34 seconds apart.

"If I can put some pucks in the net and help this team, it would be great," said Hejduk, who became the first player to record 100 career goals at the Pepsi Center. "We're playing good hockey; we're on a roll. It's a lot of fun and we are definitely enjoying it."

Said Quenneville: "It was nice to see Milan score, but I think our production across the board has been pretty consistent."

The Avalanche also got Cody McCormick's first goal of the season - it turned out to be the winner - Marek Svatos' 27th and 25 saves from goalie David Aebischer, who posted his seventh victory in a row and outplayed counterpart and future Hall of Famer Ed Belfour.

Down 2-1 after the first period, the Avalanche scored four times on its final six shots of the second period, with Hejduk's goals putting his team in front for good.

His first goal came off a pass from Tanguay at the 8:08 mark on a five-on-three skating advantage. Hejduk beat Belfour to the near post with a shot from the left side.

Hejduk's next goal came from right in front at 8:42 off a pass from Brett McLean, who was behind the net when he slid the puck by a Toronto defender.

"They scored two quick ones," said Quinn, whose team has lost four of five games after a six-game winning streak. "The one on the five-on-three was kind of a bad angle, but a good shot up high.

"The next one, we missed our coverage. We gave the guy behind the net too much time. Our front guy should have challenged him. Two bad things that end up in a goal and suddenly we go from a 2-1 lead to a one-goal deficit."

McCormick, who scored twice in 62 previous NHL games, increased the lead to 4-2 at 12:35 with a shot from the right circle that zipped between Belfour's pads.

Svatos, who has recorded seven goals in the past six games, converted Brad Richardson's pass at 18:21 after Richardson took the puck away from Toronto's Kyle Wellwood.

"The key to our game has been our consistency," said Tanguay, who has totaled eight goals and seven assists in the past nine games and is the Avalanche's top scorer with 55 points.

"We're a skating team. We're not as big as some of the teams physically, so in order for us to be successful we have to be skating and we have to be on the puck."

The Avalanche didn't get off to a good start, yielding a goal to Jason Allison 59 seconds into the game and one to Jeff O'Neill 14 seconds after Tanguay tipped Rob Blake's shot home on a power play.

"It's not like we played bad in the first period," Tanguay said. "They got a couple breaks and they're very skilled on the rush. It was just a matter of us skating and doing the things that we've been doing to be successful."

Effective special teams play has been one of them.

The Avalanche went 3-for-8 on power plays and killed five of six penalties. The Maple Leafs' power-play goal came with 5:16 left in the game when Mats Sundin banked a shot into the net off of Avalanche defenseman Brett Clark.

First period - 1, Tor, Allison 8 (Ponikarovsky, Antropov), :59. 2, Col, Tanguay 20 (Blake, Liles), 16:03 (pp). 3, Tor, O'Neill 14 (Sundin, Steen), 16:17. Penalties - Vaananen, Col, (holding), 6:16; Khavanov, Tor (holding), 9:08; Domi, Tor (holding), 12:17; Sundin, Tor (hooking), 15:49; Tor bench, served by O'Neill (too many men), 18:54.

Second period - 4, Col, Hejduk 12 (Tanguay, Sakic), 8:08 (pp). 5, Col, Hejduk 13 (McLean, Brunette), 8:42 (pp). 6, Col, McCormick 1 (Boughner, Blake), 12:35. 7, Col, Svatos 27 (Richardson, Laaksonen), 18:21. Penalties - Vaananen, Col, (tripping), 4:13; Klee, Tor (hooking), 7:03; Tor bench, served by O'Neill (too many men), 7:45; Svatos, Col, (holding), 9:44.

Third period - 8, Tor, Sundin 10 (Kaberle, Colaiacovo), 14:14 (pp). Penalties - Belfour, Tor, served by Wellwood (unsportsmanlike conduct), 4:57; Svatos, Col, (roughing), 6:26; Sundin, Tor (hooking), 7:26; Tanguay, Col, (tripping), 12:40; Blake, Col, (hooking), 14:36.

Shots - Tor 11-6-11 - 28. Col 13-13-5 - 31. Power plays - Tor 1 of 6; Col 3 of 8. Goalies - Tor, Belfour 18-15-2 (31 shots-26 saves). Col, Aebischer 18-9-0 (28-25). A - 18,007 (18,007). T - 2:18. Referees - Chris Rooney, Mick McGeough. Linesmen - Don Henderson, Ryan Galloway.

sadowskir@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2587