In the old NHL, an Avalanche fan could have left the Pepsi Center after two periods and his team up by two goals and driven home assured of seeing a happy game recap on the 10 o’clock news.
The Avalanche had a two-goal lead after two periods Wednesday night in the 2006-07 season opener against the Dallas Stars. It was an unhappy drive home for the Pepsi Center partisans. After one game, at least, it is clear the NHL hasn’t reverted to its previous incarnation as a predictable sport.
Playing a ferocious third period, the Stars came back to beat the Avs 3-2 in overtime, in front of a sellout crowd. Darryl Sydor’s out-of-the-penalty-box goal for Dallas at 2:07 of overtime capped the comeback, which seemed out of the question following the first 40 minutes in which Colorado outshot Dallas 32-14 and leading on goals from Joe Sakic and Wojtek Wolski.
How did the Avs lose? Because they seemed under the impression the previously moribund Stars would stay that way for 20 more minutes, and let Dallas dictate play from there on.
“They came out flying,” said Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore, who stopped 30-of-33 shots. “They got the quick third-period goal and then they got the momentum and just kept coming.”
Goals 28 seconds apart in the first two minutes of the third, by Mike Modano and Loui Eriksson, suddenly had Dallas back in a game that had been just as completely dictated by the Avalanche. The problem for the Avs was, Stars goalie Marty Turco was everything he wasn’t in the playoffs last April against Colorado – able to make the clutch saves to keep his team in a game.
Dallas blitzed Theodore for 18 of the first 21 shots of the third. Theodore wasn’t much to blame for the scores, as some sloppy puck-handling in the Avs’ zone helped victimize Theodore. The Avs goalie made a few top-notch saves – including three in a row on the doorstep against Stars forward Steve Ott – to keep the game even, get the Avs into overtime and get his team at least one point.
“That’s the good thing, we got a point,” Theodore said. “We played a great first two periods, and we have to take that out of this game that we played well then. We hopefully can learn from this and get better.”
The Avalanche blew a chance to win early in OT. Colorado had a power play, skating 4-on-3, after Sydor took a slashing penalty at the end of regulation. Sakic hit the post with one shot and the Avs passed the puck around and around but were unable to get a good shot on Turco.
Just as Sydor’s penalty expired, Turco had the puck on his stick. One of the more daring goalies in the league when it comes to puck handling, Turco flipped a long pass to Sydor, who came out of the penalty box ahead of the field and took the pass right at the red line. He broke in alone and beat Theodore with a wrist shot off the rush, to the high glove side.
“Sometimes, a 2-0 lead is the worst one you can have,” Avs veteran Ian Laperriere said. “We’ll learn from this. It’s a momentum game, and when they got that quick third-period goal, they got (momentum) from it. But we got one point, and it’s only game one.”
Avs coach Joel Quenneville called it a “tough loss,” especially after such a dominating first two periods.
“After scoring early in the third, they hemmed us in our zone pretty good, kind of like we did to them the first two periods,” Quenneville said. “It was tough, not getting anything on that power play. First two periods, the recipe was perfect. But not the last 20 minutes.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
