Avalanche loses bounce

Colorado falters after bad hop lets Wild put in winner

By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 14, 2008 at 11:10 p.m.

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Photo by Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

Andrew Brunette, who had one goal and one assist, lands on top of Minnesota's Sean Hill during the Wild's overtime victory.

A bounce off a skate there and a crazy hop off the boards here and, suddenly, the Avalanche is in serious trouble.

A goal by Pierre-Marc Bou- chard at 11:58 of overtime Monday night gave the Minnesota Wild a 3-2 win - see a trend? - against the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center and a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference quarterfinal series.

Now the Avalanche, which has lost home-ice advantage, will need to come back tonight and overcome its second consecutive frustrating loss to avoid falling into a perilous 3-1 deficit heading back to Minnesota.

"We have to come our ready to play," Avalanche captain Joe Sakic said. "I think we have to be better defensively. It was another tight game, and that's what we expect from here on out."

The Avalanche, which has squandered third-period leads in all three games, lost Game 2 at the Xcel Energy Center when Wild defenseman Keith Carney banked a shot off defenseman Ruslan Sakei's skate into the net.

In Monday's game, Avalanche defenseman Jeff Finger turned the wrong way on what would have been an icing call against the Wild after the puck took a bad hop off the boards. Minnesota's Brian Rolston gained possession and passed to Bouchard who wired his shot past goalie Jose Theodore.

"We liked the fact it was going to be icing," coach Joel Quenne- ville said. "It took a funny hop and we kind of made a mistake going to the other side of the net, but they made a nice play to finish it."

Said Theodore: "Well, it was an icing call and I guess it took a weird bounce and our defenseman went the wrong way, so they were able to get the puck and then attack right away. It was more of a bad bounce than anything."

Theodore kept the Avalanche alive in the extra period with a spectacular save against Marian Gaborik and another on Pavol Demitra, who took a pass from Bouchard on a two-on-one rush.

"We just made a few too many mistakes in the neutral zone," said Andrew Brunette, who gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead in the first period, one that held up until the third. "Even if they didn't relate to goals, we kind of got ourselves into a little bit of trouble."

A power play that faltered so badly in the regular season went 0-for-6 and was burnt for a third- period short-handed goal by Rolston that put the Wild up 2-1.

"Our power play needs to be better than it was," Quenneville said. "That was an area where we could have got it to 2-0 and distanced ourselves in the game. We could have used a timely goal on the 'PP.' "

The Avalanche sent the game to overtime on Sakic's goal with 5:04 to play in regulation during a mad scramble in front of Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom.

Peter Forsberg passed the puck into the slot and when Wild defenseman Sean Hill tried to get his stick on it while facing the net, the puck went between his skates.

It didn't help the Wild's cause that Backstrom was on his back after Brunette was plowed into him by Minnesota's Aaron Voros.

The Avalanche scored first for the third consecutive game when Brunette knocked in a rebound at 15:19 of the opening period.

After the Avalanche failed to convert on its fifth power play, the Wild tied the score at 7:13 of the third period on a goal by Mikko Koivu, his third of the series.

Bouchard shot the puck into the Avalanche end and Theodore steered it into the corner. When Todd Fedoruk chased down the puck, Avalanche defensemen Adam Foote and Kurt Sauer followed. That left Koivu unchecked flying down the slot and he fired Fedoruk's pass into the net on a bang-bang play.

The Wild went ahead at 11:32 on Rolston's short-handed goal after an Avalanche turnover. Demitra came up with it and led a two-on-one rush with Rolston skating down right wing.

The Avalanche margin could have been larger than 1-0 before the Wild rallied, but it failed to cash in on back-to-back power plays shortly after Brunette scored and again early in the second period.

The crowd responded with loud boos midway through the second period when Hill wrapped his arms around Forsberg's head and body slammed him to the ice.

Hill was penalized for roughing, but Forsberg was assessed a holding penalty, drawing more boos.

"I don't think we played our best game," said Forsberg, who logged 24:15 in ice time and added he won't have a problem playing in back-to-back games for the first time since last season.

"I have to be a little better and we have to play a little better if we are going to win (tonight)."

Wild 3, Avalanche 2, OT

Minnesota0 0 2 1 - 3

Colorado1 0 1 0 - 2

First period - 1, Col, Brunette 1 (Sakic, Wolski), 15:19. Penalties - Stastny, Col, (high-sticking), 6:44; Fedoruk, Min (hooking), 15:37; Johnsson, Min (roughing), 17:27.

Second period - None. Penalties - Voros, Min (goalie interference), 3:26; Gaborik, Min (hooking), 5:31; Guite, Col, (slashing), 8:19; Forsberg, Col, (holding), 11:32; Hill, Min (roughing), 11:32; Hejduk, Col, (high-sticking), 16:01; Koivu, Min (hooking), 19:43.

Third period - 2, Min, Koivu 3 (Fedoruk, Bouchard), 7:13. 3, Min, Rolston 1 (Demitra), 11:32 (sh). 4, Col, Sakic 2 (Forsberg, Brunette), 14:56. Penalties - Koivu, Min (tripping), 10:26; Jones, Col, (slashing), 19:51.

Overtime - 5, Min, Bouchard 1 (Rolston), 11:58.

Penalties - None.

Shots - Min 9-14-4-12 - 39. Col 12-17-10-7 - 46. Power plays - Min 0 of 4; Col 0 of 6. Goalies - Min, Backstrom 2-1 (46 shots-44 saves). Col, Theodore 1-2 (39-36). A - 18,007 (18,007). T - 2:54. Referees - Marc Joannette, Tim Peel. Linesmen - Jay Sharrers, Vaughan Rody.

sadowskir@RockyMountainNews.com

Wild at Avalanche

* When: 8 tonight.

* Where: Pepsi Center.

* What: Game 4, best-of- seven Western Conference quarterfinals.

* TV/radio: Altitude; KKFN-FM (104.3).

* Leading scorers (playoffs)

Minnesota (2-1) G A P

C Mikko Koivu 3 1 4

RW Pavol Demitra 1 1 2

RW Brian Rolston 1 1 2

LW Todd Fedoruk 1 1 2

D Keith Carney 1 0 1

Coach:

Jacques Lemaire

Colorado (1-2) G A P

C Joe Sakic 2 2 4

LW Wojtek Wolski 0 3 3

D Jeff Finger 1 1 2

LW Peter Forsberg 1 1 2

Coach:

Joel Quenneville * Injuries: Minnesota - D Kurtis Foster (leg), RW Mark Parrish (concussion) and D Nick Schultz (appendectomy) are out; RW Branko Radivojevic (leg) is day to day. Colorado - D Brett Clark (shoulder), RW Scott Parker (ankle) and RW Marek Svatos (knee) are out.

* Sidelight: The Avalanche went 5-4 in the second game when playing back-to-back during the regular season.

Schedule

All times Mountain

* Game 1: Avalanche 3, Wild 2 OT

* Game 2: Wild 3, Avalanche 2 OT

* Game 3: Wild 3, Avalanche 2, OT Wild leads series 2-1

* Game 4: at Avalanche, 8 tonight. TV: Altitude, Versus. * Game 5: at Wild, 7 p.m. Thursday. TV: Altitude. * *Game 6: at Avalanche, TBD Saturday. TV: Altitude, Versus. * *Game 7: at Wild, TBD April 22. TV: Altitude.

• April 14, 2008

  11:45 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  mjo1985 writes:

  no idea what finger was thinking. TOUCH the puck and its ICING!!!!!

• April 14, 2008

  11:46 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  IBleedOrange writes:

  This AP writer is a moron. Theodore had NO CHANCE on either 3rd period goal tonight and has given up one softie in the whole series, but did everything he could to try to steal a game tonight. The Avs played not to lose, put in a horrible effort and got what they deserved. I can't remember the last time I've been so disgusted by any lack of a killer instinct.

• April 15, 2008

  7:47 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  mheuer writes:

  What a great game. Both Teams looked great. Minnesota just had fresher legs in OT last night. Hopefully the game does not go to OT tonight. It get late in Minnesota!

  GO WILD!

• April 15, 2008

  1:30 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  psu96 writes:

  0-6 on the powerplay....

• April 15, 2008

  1:46 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  HE5t writes:

  The Avs suck anyway

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