Avalanche's success snowballing

Hitting on all cylinders leads to fast start at home

Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 3, 2007 at midnight

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CENTENNIAL - Confidence, smarts, effective goaltending and penalty killing . . . all have been factors in the Avalanche's franchise record-tying start at home and second-best overall start since the team's arrival in Denver 12 years ago.

"I can't say there's been one defining thing that's made us more effective," coach Joel Quenneville said Friday.

The Avalanche has outscored teams 26-13 in running up a 6-0 record at home - that matches the Quebec Nordiques' home start in 1994-95 - heading into its meeting tonight with the Vancouver Canucks at the Pepsi Center (8, Altitude).

With an 8-4 mark through the first dozen games, the Avalanche also has fashioned its best overall start since the 2000- 01 team went 9-1-2 through the same number of games and went on to win a Stanley Cup.

It's much too early for anyone to begin fantasizing about that kind of ending, but the Avalanche is sitting in first place in the Northwest Division, a good place to be with 10 of the next 11 games against division rivals.

"These are huge games, huge points," forward Andrew Brunette said. "We have to keep this going. I don't think we've played our best hockey yet, but we've done a good job of getting wins out of games when we didn't play as well as we could have."

One significant area of improvement: the ability to hang on to leads in the third period. The club's play hasn't always looked pretty, but the Avalanche is 6-0 when leading after two periods and 4-1 in games decided by one goal.

The Avalanche wasn't nearly as effective at crunch time last season until it was too late and missed the playoffs by a point.

"We hadn't been able to close out games at all until the end of the year," Brunette said. "We always seemed to find a way to lose a point or two. I think part of it is confidence. We figured out what we had to do. When you blow a few, you're kind of back on your heels a little bit."

The Avalanche was in that situation as recently as four games ago in Edmonton. After taking a 3-1 lead in the first period, Colorado went into a defensive shell, was outshot 17-8 the rest of the way and needed an empty-net goal from Brett Clark to seal a 4-2 win, the team's first on the road in five attempts.

Quenneville wasn't happy with how the team finished that game, saying players looked uncomfortable. But they survived the test and have won the past three games by one goal, capped by a 3-2 win against Pittsburgh on Thursday.

"I think it was (a turning point)," Quenneville said of the Oilers game. "I like how we've been playing since then, particularly when the game's been on the line - playing by the clock and the score. We're comfortable and confident that we're going to get the job done. It took us 50 games last year to finally solidify that angle, and it made for a nice stretch run."

The Avalanche has had some close calls at the Pepsi Center but so far remains unscathed.

"I think the home crowd's been good for us," Quenneville said. "At the same time, the confidence and momentum that you feel going into home games, we should be able to create that same environment going into road games."

The Avalanche was determined to make the Pepsi Center a difficult place for opponents after posting 22 wins and 47 points there last year; the team had as many wins and one more point on the road.

"We're happy, but we're not overwhelmed by what we've done so far," goalie Jose Theodore said.

A 6-0 home record is nothing to sneeze at, but two teams - Minnesota (8-0) and Edmonton (6-0) - did as well or better at the start of last season.

The NHL record is 11 consecutive home wins to begin a season, set by the Chicago Blackhawks in 1963-64. Only five teams have won as many as their first nine home games, none since the Blackhawks in 1971-72.

"We know that we've had a couple close games, and Vancouver is coming into the building and they're going to want to turn things around," Theodore said of the slumping Canucks. "We wanted to play well at home and we have, but we also know that there's room for improvement."

Fast start

How the Avalanche's home and overall records compare with the team's previous seasons in Denver through the same number of games:

Home Overall Season W-L-T/OL Pt. W-L-T Pt.

2007-08 6-0-0 12 8-4-0 16

2006-07 2-3-1 5 6-4-2 14

2005-06 3-2-1 7 7-4-1 15

2004-05 Season canceled

2003-04 3-3-0 6 6-5-1 13

2002-03 1-2-3 5 4-2-6 14

2001-02 4-2-0 8 7-5-0 14

2000-01 5-1-0 10 9-1-2 20

1999-00 4-2-0 8 5-5-2 12

1998-99 2-4-0 4 4-7-1 9

1997-98 3-0-3 9 6-2-4 16

1996-97 4-1-1 9 7-4-1 15

1995-96 5-0-1 11 8-3-1 17

Canucks at Avalanche

• When: 8 tonight.

• Where: Pepsi Center.

• TV/radio: Altitude; KKFN-AM (950).

• Leading scorers

Vancouver

(5-8-0) G A P

LW Daniel Sedin 5 6 11

LW Markus Naslund 4 5 9

C Henrik Sedin 2 7 9

C Brendan Morrison 4 4 8

C Ryan Kesler 2 6 8

Coach: Alain Vigneault

Colorado (8-4-0) G A P

C Paul Stastny 5 10 15

C Joe Sakic 5 9 14

RW Andrew Brunette 2 9 11

LW Ryan Smyth 5 5 10

LW Wojtek Wolski 5 5 10

Coach: Joel Quenneville

• Injuries: Vancouver - D Kevin Bieksa (lacerated calf), LW Jeff Cowan (hip flexor), D Lukas Krajicek (ankle), C Rick Rypien (finger) and D Sami Salo (fractured orbital bone) are out. Colorado - D Jordan Leopold (wrist surgery), LW Brad Richardson (wrist) and D Karlis Skrastins (separated shoulder) are out.

• Sidelight: The injury-riddled Canucks have lost six of their past eight games and are three games under .500 for the first time since the 2001-02 season.

• Notes: Peter Budaj will start in goal for the Avalanche. He has won two games in a row, stopping a combined 46 of 49 shots against Edmonton and Minnesota. . . . Milan Hejduk's back felt fine at practice Friday after playing Thursday, his first game since Oct. 19. . . . Richardson is getting closer to being activated. "But I can't say whether it's two days, one day or a week," said Quenne- ville, who tinkered with some line combinations again. Brunette was back with Wolski and Stastny, and Hejduk skated with Jaroslav Hlinka and Ben Guite.

sadowskir@RockyMountainNews.com

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