Raycroft shelled in shaky start for Avs

By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 3, 2008 at 9:43 p.m.

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David Zalubowski © AP

Avalanche defenseman Jordan Leopold, left, holds on to Chicago left winger Kyle Beach as he tries to score against Avs goalie Andrew Raycroft during the second period.

Photo by David Zalubowski / Associated Press

Colorado's John-Michael Liles takes a hit from Brent Seabrook in the Avalanche's game against the Blackhawks on Friday at the Pepsi Center.

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This wasn't the Pepsi Center debut that Andrew Raycroft had envisioned.

The 28-year-old goalie, who signed with the Avalanche as a free agent in July, gave up a couple of bad goals while playing behind a sloppy defense Friday night in a 7-4 preseason loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Raycroft allowed six goals, two on power plays, on 23 shots before Martin Havlat scored into an empty net with 42.6 seconds remaining for his second goal of the game.

"Obviously, when you give up six goals, it's never good," Raycroft said. "Pucks were getting tipped and it wasn't bouncing anywhere near my way often, but you never want to give up six, no matter when, even in practice.

"But I've got a perspective of it and I'll just work hard the next week and be ready to go."

Raycroft stopped 32-of-36 shots in his two previous games, both wins on the road, and said he has been able to accomplish what he wanted from training camp despite his disappointing outing Friday.

Peter Budaj is likely to start the preseason game against the Blackhawks on Sunday in Chicago for a final tuneup before the regular-season opener against Boston on Thursday.

"This one wasn't great, but I've been here for over a month now and really worked hard and gotten my game into shape," Raycroft said. "I'm happy about that and I feel good about that. I'm really enjoying coming to the rink again."

That wasn't always the case last season in Toronto, where he went 2-9-5 and spent the majority of the time sitting behind Vesa Toskala.

"When you're not playing, it just gets frustrating," Raycroft said. "It's a positive environment here. The guys are great and I'm looking forward to the year starting. I'm excited about it."

The Avalanche (3-1-1) signed Raycroft to a one-year, $800,000 contract after Jose Theodore left for Washington as a replacement for Cristobal Huet, who went to Chicago for $22.5 million over four years.

Huet wasn't at his best Friday, yielding four goals - two each by David Jones and Paul Stastny - on 20 shots.

"It was a hard game for a goaltender. I could see that at both ends," Avalanche coach Tony Granato said. "There were a lot of bouncing pucks around the net. I thought we were a little bit sloppy around our net in coverage and they made the most of their chances.

"(Raycroft) has had a very solid camp. It wasn't a performance, I'm sure, that he's proud of, but it's something that shouldn't get him down, because he's been very good all camp. You have games like this where sometimes the pucks just go in and it doesn't go the way you hope it does."

Jones, who scored the winning goal Wednesday against Dallas, beat Huet to the glove side in the first period after stealing the puck from Kris Versteeg and added his second goal, in the second period, with a shot that bounced into the net off Huet's right arm.

"He's been flying," Granato said of Jones, who missed the first three games because of a groin injury after collecting a hat trick in the Burgundy and White intrasquad game. "He's been the same since the first day of camp. He missed a little bit of time, but he's certainly showed that he's ready to go."

Dustin Byfuglien had two goals and an assist for the Blackhawks (5-1-1). Dave Bolland, Brent Seabrook and Patrick Sharp also scored for Chicago.

ETC.: The Avalanche lost forward T.J. Hensick to a scratched cornea in his left eye in the first period. Hensick was high-sticked by Jack Skille, who was assessed a double-minor penalty. "He's probably day to day," Granato said. "It's just precautionary. Anytime anything happens to the eye, you stay on the careful side of it. I think it takes a couple days to heal." . . . Sitting out for the Avalanche were Joe Sakic, Milan Hej- duk, Ryan Smyth, Adam Foote, Tyler Arnason, Scott Parker, Daniel Tjarnqvist and Cody McLeod.

Blackhawks 7, Avalanche 4

Chicago2 2 3 - 7

Colorado1 2 1 - 4

First period - 1, Chi, Byfuglien 1 (Barker, Kane), 1:18. 2, Chi, Havlat 1 (Bolland, Barker), 10:30 (pp). 3, Col, Jones 2, 11:45.

Second period - 4, Col, Stastny 1 (Svatos, Liles), 0:38 (pp). 5, Col, Jones 3 (Wolski, Stastny), 2:45. 6, Chi, Bolland 1 (Bolland, Skille), 5:37. 7, Chi, Seabrook 2 (Keith, Toews), 9:08.

Third period - 8, Chi, Sharp 5 (Kane, Byfuglien), 1:08. 9, Chi, Byfuglien 2 (Kane, B.Campbell), 6:10 (pp). 10, Col, Stastny 2 (Tucker, Clark), 16:19 (pp). 11, Chi, Havlat 2 (Toews, Versteeg), 19:17 (en).

Shots - Chi 9-6-9 - 24. Col 6-8-6 - 20. Goalies - Chi, Huet. Col, Raycroft. A - NA (18,007). T - 2:19.

• October 4, 2008

  10:09 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  GJrodburner writes:

  This will truely be the undoing of this team this year if this is as good as Raycroft can play, regardless of how terrible the defense in front of him is playing. It will need to be a trading deadline acquisition for a goalie, whether it be for Raycroft or for Budaj, but another goalie that is battle tested and can play when the defense is less than stellar that will probably become the need for this team in order for them not miss the playoffs.

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