During its short but proud history, no team has swept the Avalanche in a playoff series. That might change if the Avs play the Detroit Red Wings in the first round this season – and the current Western Conference standings show the odds of that happening are decent.
Right now, the Avs and Red Wings are planets apart in terms of matching up. If they were planets, the Red Wings would be that big fireball in the sky. Detroit again embarrassed the Avalanche on home ice, shutting out Colorado 3-0 at the Pepsi Center. It was the first time this season the Avs were shut out or held to fewer than two goals in a game.
Things were most embarrassing for the Avs when they were on the power play. Not only did the Avs rarely get set up in the Detroit zone, the Wings were the team more often in control of the puck.
“No question, the difference in the game was their (penalty killing) was a lot better than our power play,” Avalanche captain Joe Sakic said. “We didn’t do anything. They were on every loose puck.”
The conference-leading Red Wings scored three times in the third period, including the game-winning goal from Daniel Cleary at 5 minutes, 40 seconds. Mikael Samuelsson and Robert Lang also scored on Avs goalie David Aebischer, who played well except for allowing Samuelsson’s somewhat soft goal at 10:01.
“I’m not too pleased with that goal. That was my fault,” Aebischer said. “I thought we played them hard and it was scoreless in the third, but they played better than we did in the third.”
The Avs’ power play is 0-for-15 in the past two games. Against the Wings, the Avs looked hopeless. The absence of center Pierre Turgeon is starting to show on the PP; his patience with the puck helps free up others such as Marek Svatos and Alex Tanguay. The loss of Milan Hejduk to the lineup Saturday didn’t help, either, forcing coach Joel Quenneville to go further down his bench for help. There were moments against Detroit when the Avs used lesser lights such as Bob Boughner and Brad May on the PP.
“Their PK is very smart,” Quenneville said. “They were disruptive on our entries, and we didn’t have enough good puck presence. The last two games, the (power play) has really struggled. We lost some momentum in the game when we didn’t do anything with our four (power-play) chances.”
Asked if there is a big disparity between his team and Detroit, Quenneville said no, that the Avs had several good chances to get the first goal and that the team has been in most every game this season. Against Detroit, however, the Avs are 0-3 and have been outscored 14-6.
Colorado had an opportunity to take a 1-0 lead in the third. Tanguay had a walk-in chance alone against goalie Manny Legace but lost the puck on his backhand. On the ensuing rush down the ice by Detroit, Henrik Zetterberg got past defenseman Karlis Skrastins and fed a centering pass to Cleary, who one-timed a shot through Aebischer’s pads.
Skrastins is a minus-6 in his past nine games and made mistakes on the two goals that have helped cost the Avs the past two games.
“What it boils down to is they outworked us,” Sakic said. “They have a great hockey club. We’re back there (in Detroit) next Sunday, so hopefully we have a better performance.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
