Riding a six-game unbeaten streak at home and facing a goalie making his first NHL start and a team completing a seven-game road trip, the Avalanche on Monday night felt good about its chances against Edmonton.
To boot, the Oilers were playing on little rest after losing Sunday night at Chicago.
Rookie goalie Michael Morrison, however, was given an early two-goal lead and didn’t get rattled when the Avs forged a tie as he held on to beat Colorado 5-2 at the Pepsi Center.
“Not the best game. We didn’t play well,” Avs forward Milan Hejduk said. “Their seventh game on the road, which is tough, and we didn’t take advantage. I don’t know why.”
Morrison, 26, who played four years at University of Maine before spending three seasons in the minor leagues, stopped 23 shots through two periods and 31 for the game. He was the key cog in ending Colorado’s unbeaten streak at home (5-0-1) and David Aebischer’s seven-game winning streak.
“He made some key saves early in the game and the team got some life off it,” Avs coach Joel Quenneville said of Morrison, the backup to Jussi Markkanen. “The first goal tonight was important, (especially) because it was his first start. He made several key saves at the right times.”
Aebischer, who came into the game with a 6-2 career record and 1.82 goals-against average against Edmonton, stopped just 17 shots. But despite giving up two first-period goals on seven shots, he didn’t play poorly at the outset.
“I thought we played decent in the first period, and it was unfortunate that we were down by two goals,” Aebischer said.
“We battled back but maybe we risked too much; we gave up chances that made the score what it was.”
On the Oilers’ first power play, Ryan Smyth beat Aebischer with a bad-angle, but perfectly placed, wrist shot near the end line 9:28 into the game.
Edmonton doubled its lead less than a minute later on a fluke goal. Jarret Stoll’s centering pass from the left circle found its way into the net – along with the Oilers’ Ethan Moreau, Avs defenseman Ossi Vaananen and Aebischer. Moreau was credited with the goal.
The Avs had five consecutive power plays from then until the middle of the second period and scored twice with the advantage to tie the game at 2.
Late in the first period, Rob Blake’s high wrist shot from the right circle trimmed the Avs’ deficit to 2-1. And 10 minutes into the second period, Ian Laperriere cashed in on a hard rebound and buried the puck into an open net.
At that point, Hejduk remembers thinking, “We’re going to win that game.”
But Chris Pronger, Edmonton’s prized offseason free-agent signee, produced his first goal of the season on a slap shot at 12:14 of the second period – right after a two-man Colorado disadvantage went to one.
And early in the third, Raffi Torres tapped in a 2-on-1 rush feed from Ales Hemsky to make it 4-2.
“It was frustrating, knowing that we were right there at 2-2 and obviously that third goal was a big turning point in the game,” Quen- neville said.
“Playing catchup as loosely as we did, didn’t give us much chance to get back into the game.”
The game was the fourth meeting between the Northwest Division rivals this season. Both teams have two wins.
“We played a pretty efficient game tonight,” Oilers coach Crag MacTavish said.
“In the third period, we had guys move the puck on the proper positions. When you play intelligently, you don’t expend that much energy. That was a big step for us.”
Staff writer Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
