Colorado enjoys rare road winning streak

Three-goal first lifts Avalanche past last-place Kings

By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 18, 2007 at 12:45 a.m.

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Photo by Victor Decolongon / Getty Images

Avalanche players, from left, Paul Stastny, Ryan Smyth and Milan Hejduk celebrate Stastny's first-period goal Monday against the Kings. Smith also scored in the first period of the 4-2 victory.

Road warriors? Not quite.

But the Avalanche is beginning to take baby steps in the right direction with back-to-back road wins for the first time since late October, three victories in the past five road games and four in the past seven.

This is progress for a team that has dominated at home but until recently struggled everywhere else.

The improvement continued Monday night when the Avalanche beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 before 16,647 at the Staples Center to open a two-game trip that includes Wednesday's match with the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks.

Suddenly, the Avalanche is back in first place in the Northwest Division and riding a three-game winning streak.

Not that it was a walk in the rink against the Kings, who got goals from Dustin Brown and Michal Handzus early in the third period after the Avalanche had built a 3-0 first-period lead.

Brown tipped a point shot by defenseman Rob Blake behind goalie Peter Budaj 36 seconds into the period for a power-play goal and Handzus whistled a shot into the net at 4:46 from above the right circle for a short-handed goal.

Ben Guite sealed the deal for the Avalanche with an empty-net goal with 1:07 remaining.

The Avalanche was dominant in the first period, when it outshot the Kings by 16-4 and broke out to a 3-0 lead that could have been greater except for some big saves from goalie Jason LaBarbera.

Twenty-five seconds after defenseman Brett Clark drew a holding penalty by Brown to put the Avalanche on the power play, Ryan Smyth converted from the edge of the crease for his 11th goal of the season and 14th point in the past nine games.

The Avalanche began the night with five goals in 65 man advantages on the road, a 7.7 percent success rate that was the lowest in the NHL. After cashing in the initial power play, the Avalanche failed to capitalize on five more.

Jaroslav Hlinka increased the lead to 2-0 just 62 seconds after Smyth scored. He beat Lubomir Visnovsky to the puck after a pass by Clark, swept the puck between the Kings defenseman's skates and scored on a breakaway for his fifth goal.

After a slow start, Hlinka has two goals and three assists in a six-game stretch.

The Avalanche spent a good portion of the period buzzing around LaBarbera's net, and it paid off at 14:12 when Paul Stastny jammed the puck into the net as Blake backpedaled toward the crease and nearly knocked in the puck.

The Kings spoke before the game as if they were seeking some payback against Smyth, accusing him of a dirty play that resulted in a third-period rib injury to LaBarbera when the teams met Dec. 1 in Los Angeles.

Smyth, who had two goals and one assist in the Avalanche's 5-2 win that night, was digging for a puck in the crease and poked LaBarbera in the chest. LaBarbera was forced to leave the game, was placed on the injured reserve list, and he wasn't activated until Monday morning.

"If there's going to be a chance to finish a check (against Smyth) . . . everybody's going to take the chance to finish," Brown said before the game.

Kings defenseman Jack Johnson added: "Definitely guys are not happy with him. So guys are going to play him harder and be a little bit more alert around our goalie."

But nothing out of the ordinary took place, and Smyth was his usual feisty self in front of the net.

ETC.: The Avalanche hadn't won two road games in a row since victories in Edmonton and Calgary Oct. 23-26. . . . The Smyth-Stastny-Milan Hejduk line has combined for 16 goals and 22 assists in the past nine games. Smyth has five goals and nine assists in this stretch, while Stastny has six goals and six assists, and Hejduk five goals and seven assists. . . . Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville tied Jack Adams for 18th place on the NHL's all-time list with his 413rd win. The league's coach of the year award is named after Adams, who was coach of the Detroit Cougars/ Red Wings from 1927 to 1947. He guided the Red Wings to three Stanley Cups as coach and four more as general manager.

Avalanche 4, Kings 2

Colorado3 0 1 - 4

Los Angeles0 0 2 - 2

First period - 1, Col, Smyth 11 (Clark, Liles), 2:37 (pp). 2, Col, Hlinka 5 (Clark), 3:39. 3, Col, Stastny 15 (Hejduk, Liles), 14:12. Penalties - Brown, LA (holding), 2:12; Col bench, served by Hensick (too many men), 6:27; Modry, LA (tripping), 9:34; Modry, LA (hooking), 15:53.

Second period - None. Penalties - Laperriere, Col, (cross-checking), 2:38; Johnson, LA (elbowing), 10:07; Finger, Col, (holding), 12:16; Hannan, Col, (hooking), 18:57.

Third period - 4, LA, Brown 15 (Blake, Kopitar), :36 (pp). 5, LA, Handzus 5 (O'Sullivan), 4:46 (sh). 6, Col, Guite 3, 18:53 (en). Penalties - Cammalleri, LA (tripping), 3:06; Johnson, LA (elbowing), 6:51.

Shots - Col 16-15-9 - 40. LA 4-10-7 - 21. Power plays - Col 1 of 5; LA 1 of 4. Goalies - Col, Budaj 12-6-0 (21 shots-19 saves). LA, LaBarbera 6-10-1 (39-36). A - 16,647 (18,118). T - 2:17. Referees - Dan Marouelli, Kelly Sutherland. Linesmen - Shane Heyer, Ryan Galloway.

sadowskir@RockyMountainNews.com

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