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Avalanche 4, Oilers 2

By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 28, 2007 at 10 p.m.
Updated November 28, 2007 at 11:05 p.m.

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An Avalanche offense that had been in the deep freeze for nearly two weeks finally thawed Wednesday night.

Only some spectacular goaltending from Edmonton Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson in the first two periods prevented the Avalanche from running the visitors right out of the Pepsi Center.

But after totaling just eight goals while losing four of the previous five games, the Avalanche was more than satisfied with a 4-2 win that kept it within one point of first place in the Northwest Division.

Too bad only 15,128 fans were in the building, the smallest crowd to see the Avalanche play since it opened eight years ago.

“We played with more passion,” said right wing Milan Hejduk, who had a goal and two assists. “We enjoyed the game a little more than in previous games. We scored some goals early. It’s a good sign.”

The win, the Avalanche’s fourth in as many meetings with the Oilers, was the 500th for the team since its arrival from Quebec for the 1995-96 season.

The only downer: Avalanche captain Joe Sakic, whose second-period power-play goal turned out to be the winner, left the game with about five minutes remaining with what the team said is a minor groin ailment.

Playing with the kind of energy that had been missing during its worst slump of the season, the Avalanche came out firing and dominated an Oilers team that has been winning of late despite the absence of several injured defensemen.

The Avalanche launched a season-high 43 shots and allowed a season-low 13.

“I thought we had a real good game across the board,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “It’s one of our better games we’ve played all year. We did some real good things, made some nice plays and had contributions from all the lines and generated a lot of offense.”

Not only did the Avalanche get goals from Hejduk and Brett Clark 25 seconds apart early in the first period, but Sakic ended the team’s embarrassing power play drought with a goal at 8:45 of the second period.

When Sakic, who had one goal in the previous 12 games, beat Roloson with a wrist shot from between the faceoff circles, it was the Avalanche’s first goal in 26 power plays since Wojtek Wolski’s empty-netter with one second left in a 4-2 win against Minnesota on Nov. 11.

“It was nice to see our power play get some production,” Quenneville said.

Wolski increased the Avalanche lead to 4-0 at 14:38 after taking a cross-ice pass from Sakic, who had his first multiple-point game since collecting two assists Oct. 28 against Minnesota.

Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj had an easy time picking up his fourth win against the Oilers this season and improving his career record against them to 8-1-2.

Maybe it was too easy. While the Avalanche was peppering Roloson with 36 shots through two periods, Budaj was only facing nine.

“It was a great game from our guys, starting from defense to offense,” Budaj said. “Everything was awesome. My job was much easier.”

Despite the lopsided advantage in shots and chances, the Oilers kept the Avalanche “honest,” Quenneville said, by scoring twice in the third period.

Raffi Torres, with his first point in 15 games and first goal in 18, spoiled Budaj’s shutout at 8:15 and Shawn Horcoff tipped defenseman Denis Grebeshkov’s point shot into the net at 14:11.

“The first one I should have stopped,” Budaj said. “The second one was a nice tip.”

Hejduk, who also had two assists, opened the scoring at 4:14 of the first period after new linemate Jaroslav Hlinka’s wraparound attempt was stopped by Roloson. The puck bounced into the crease and Hejduk knocked it into the net for his third goal in five games.

Clark, whose only previous goal this season was scored into an empty net in Edmonton on Oct. 23, made it 2-0 at 4:39 when he ripped a shot from the high slot behind Roloson to complete a nifty passing sequence with Hejduk and Paul Stastny.

The Avalanche caught a huge break at the 7-minute mark when Oilers forward Kyle Brodziak had a wide-open net to shoot at and cranked his shot off the crossbar.

“I made a bad shot,” Brodziak said. “It was a stupid play and one I wish I could have back, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. That’s a play that could have changed the game around.”

The Avalanche outshot the Oilers 17-3 in the first period and 19-6 in the second.