Quenneville's switch produces power line
Combination of Forsberg, Stastny, Hejduk turns it on
By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Originally published 08:30 p.m., March 26, 2008
Updated 11:53 p.m., March 26, 2008
Darin McGregor / The Rocky
Cody McLeod, left, celebrates with John-Michael Liles, bottom, and Ben Guite after scoring the second of the Avalanche's four second-period goals Wednesday night.
Darin McGregor / The Rocky
Avalanche forward Ryan Smyth gets muscled from behind by Vancouver's Taylor Pyatt during Colorado's win Wednesday. The Avalanche moved into seventh in the Western Conference.
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Milan Hejduk and Paul Stastny weren't about to protest when Peter Forsberg joined their line late in the first period.
It turned out to be a significant move Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center, where the Avalanche crept a little closer to nailing down a playoff berth with a 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
"He seemed to have a lot of jump, seemed to have the puck a lot," coach Joel Quenneville said of Forsberg, who had three assists and four shots in 14:44 of ice time. "I thought he was very effective. That line really seemed to come on and made several nice plays and was a threat all night."
The reconstructed line combined for 12 shots, three goals and six assists in the Avalanche's seventh win in the past seven home games and fifth in a row against the Canucks.
The Avalanche also got goals from Jordan Leopold, Cody McLeod and Ben Guite to move into seventh place in the Western Conference - two points ahead of Vancouver, four ahead of Nashville and five in front of Edmonton, which visits the Pepsi Center on Friday.
"It was fun from my standpoint, playing with two great players," said Hejduk, who scored what proved to be the decisive goal at 10:29 of the second period on a two-on-one rush. "They make great passes. It was a fun night."
Hejduk added an assist on a goal by Stastny, who set up each of Hejduk's goals, his 25th and 26th of the season, tying injured Marek Svatos for the team lead.
"It wasn't just our line; everybody skated well," Hejduk said. "We created a lot of scoring chances, especially in the second period. We were all over them."
Looking much like it did during the good ol' days, the Avalanche launched 23 shots in the second period and scored on four of them in a span of 6:37 to take a 5-2 lead and chase star goalie Roberto Luongo.
"It's hard not to put pressure on yourself," said Forsberg, who began the game on a line with Tyler Arnason and David Jones before switching with Ryan Smyth. "Of course, I want to produce and it would help to score a couple of goals, but at least I was playing a little better than I did in the last couple.
"I skated maybe the best I have and, if you look at the points, they were not the prettiest points in the league, but I'll take them anyway. I'm just happy we're winning. It might take a little while to get a goal. I just have to keep working. It was great to get back to playing with Paul and Milan. Milan is such a natural goal scorer, so it's great to see him get a couple goals."
Stastny, McLeod, Hejduk and Guite scored in the second period against Luongo, who didn't get much defensive help after facing 40 shots Tuesday in the Canucks' 3-2 loss in Calgary.
"One game in Vancouver we had kind of a similar game," Hejduk said, referring to a 6-2 win Feb. 9. "But it doesn't happen very often. We had some good scoring chances and sometimes the pucks go in."
The Canucks scored what could have been a significant goal with 9.4 seconds remaining in the second period when defenseman Sami Salo fired the puck past goalie Jose Theodore from the blue line.
But the Avalanche responded with a quick goal to begin the third period. Stastny carried the puck into the Canucks zone and passed to Hejduk for a snap shot that beat goalie Curtis Sanford at the 23-second mark for a 6-3 advantage.
"We were harping on not getting scored on late in the game and it happened," Stastny said. "We had a big shift there, forcing a turnover. Pete made a nice play to me and I didn't know if I was going to pass to Pete or 'Hedgie,' and 'Hedgie' just took the puck and buried one off the post. I don't think I've seen a nicer shot this year.
"I've been playing with 'Hedgie' for a couple years now, and anytime you get to play with a guy like Pete on the line, too . . . it's easy to play with them. Just get open and vice versa."
The Avalanche took the early lead on Leopold's power-play goal at 5:10, but the Canucks got goals from Daniel Sedin and Taylor Pyatt 3:19 apart to head into the first intermission ahead 2-1.
NUMBERS GAME
23 shots in the second period for the Avalanche, a season high for one period.
BUCKING THE ODDS
The Canucks lost a rare game in which the Sedin twins - Daniel and Henrik - each collected a point. The Canucks have gone 147-48-20 in that situation since the Sedins joined the NHL in 2000-01 and are 27-12-2 this season.
HURTING HIPS
Defenseman Adam Foote still is troubled by a hip injury and Jordan Leopold came out of Wednesday's game with a similar ailment.
"I don't think it's of a serious nature," coach Joel Quenneville said of Leopold. "We'll see how it presents (today)."
Leopold scored a power-play goal in the first period, his second in two games, and took one shift in the third. Foote didn't take part in the morning skate and was scratched for the third consecutive game, the fifth time in seven games and the seventh in 10 games.
BREATHLESS
The Avalanche scored four goals in the second period and chased Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo, yet Quenneville elected to use his timeout at the 12:28 mark with a 5-2 lead.
"We had an icing play and we had a real tired group," he said. "We had a whole shift in their end and they came with the top line. It was a dangerous shift and we wanted to give the guys a chance to catch their breath."
HE SAID IT
"The race is tight and we have to win every game, or at least give ourselves a chance to win and get a point."
Paul Stastny, Avalanche center.
Comments
Posted by GJrodburner on March 26, 2008 at 10:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm open to any reasonable conclusion as to why this years version of the N.H.L. is nothing but streaks. When that streak is in your favor, you ride the wave. When it is in the opposite direction it seems like the bleeding will never end. These two home wins are in the right direction, but how on earth did this team let the four before slip away?
If Peter Forsberg can stay healthy enough to stay out there with Stastny and Hejduk to finish out the season, and build upon what he showed tonight with those two, this line may just put up the points necessary in the W.C.Po's to get the Aves into the W.C.-finals. Granted, the team has to make the play offs first, but watching that line tonight I felt like there was something very special brewing between those three. If Peter could just find his scoring touch, even just a little, I don't know how the other W.C. teams can beat this line.
Posted by queenjacyln on March 27, 2008 at 12:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think your answer is parity. The sal cap has made a lot of the teams similar to each other and play on the same level. For the whole year I've thought the Wild, Flames and Avs are very similar to each other and the constant jockeying shows that.
I do think the game of hockey is mental and momentum based. You can see the Avs get better as the game goes on and as they get streaky.
I also think the Avs rely a lot on chemistry. The lines and lineups need to be just right. Injuries have forced Q's hand a lot of the time, I'm not as critical on him as some are. It takes time to get chemistry on a line and if the PP group keeps changing then it takes time to regroup.
Finally I think some luck and scheduling factor in. The only bad game they played in the 4 game losing streak was against the Devils. The Oilers game was a bit of a ugly sight too but I've never said the Avs are not hard working or want to win. Sometimes the other 3 factors I mentioned work against them.
I said months ago the Avs will get the 6th or 7th seed and I still believe that. They can get as streaky and motivated as any team and I think they could do well in the playoffs in either of these positions.
Posted by GJrodburner on March 27, 2008 at 4:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
QJ, whithout sounding like a kissup, I think you are spot-on. I see a couple of items that coincide with the salcap though. Even though the redwings and ducks have had losing streaks, they still seemed to be built well enough through the draft, FA's, and with call-ups from the minors to override the skid at hand. For my own personal observation I'd say this Aves team has at times seemed "this close" to finding their way to the losers bracket of "wait until next year". Given what has occured over the last two home games it makes me think that possibly, coach Q finally went with a intuitive approach rather than a calculated approach to his line change last night with Peter Forsberg going to Stastny and Hejduk. Of course this is open to interpretation, but what else was Q going to do given how fast, and cheaply, the skanucks went up on us at the end of the first period? He really can't lace them up, and only the team on the bench can put out the fires they create on the ice. Still, chemistry through this salcap has been critical to all teams, but especially so for the Aves this season.
I can't see this team making the play-offs without winning four more points. Of course I'm derranged enough to think that the Aves can still win the N.W.D. outright too! If what I saw with the Stastny, Hejduk, and Forsberg line (provided that Pete can stay healthy through the rest of the regular season) I don't see how the other W.C. teams can stop the Avalanche. Granted, the skanucks were coming off of back-to-back games, and they were tired...nonetheless, I really thought I was witnessing a chemistry and line pairing that could carry this team through to more than a single round in the play-offs. If, and I know this is a true strectch, but if Peter, Milan, and Paul can continue to produce to a close-level of what they did last night, then I could see the Aves making the W.C.-finals.
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