Joe Sakic’s shootout game-winning goal for the Avalanche on Wednesday night was pretty enough that even his oldest son, Mitchell, was impressed.
“Nice goal, Dad,” he told his father. With that, Sakic bent down and kissed Mitchell on the forehead. For the Sakics and the Avs, it was a Hallmark moment to take into the holiday.
For the second time in three games, Sakic got the Avs an important extra point in the shootout, this time in Colorado’s 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at the Pepsi Center. The victory over the Western Conference-leading Ducks got the Avs back to the .500 mark (10-10-2) entering Thanksgiving, and had everyone feeling good about themselves in the home dressing room.
“That was a big win and I thought we played well,” said Sakic, the only player among six to score in the shootout. “We’ve been playing better lately and we just have to do that going forward. We’ve got some points to make up.”
Sakic’s backhander beat tough Ducks goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, and Avs goalie Jose Theodore stopped all three Anaheim shots he saw in his first shootout in a Colorado uniform.
The Avalanche thoroughly dominated Anaheim for the first 35 or so minutes, at one point having a 26-2 edge in shots on goal and a 2-0 lead. But a late second-period Anaheim surge, including Teemu Selanne’s 500th career goal, tied it. The Ducks appeared to take the lead 3-2 but had a goal disallowed because of a kicking motion by Chris Kunitz.
That allowed the Avs to regroup, and Theodore was the team’s best player from that point on. He was perfect in the shootout, stopping Selanne, Ryan Shannon and Ryan Getzlaf. The save on Getzlaf ended the game, and Theodore credited fellow Avs goalie Peter Budaj for some help.
“Peter gave me a good scouting report on him. He did just what Peter said he’d do, and that really helped,” said Theodore, who stopped 30-of-32 shots. “The key for me in a shootout is to get out there quick, because I can move pretty fast from side to side.”
Giguere kept moving deeper into his net as Sakic approached for his shootout attempt, and had nowhere to go when Sakic still had the puck on his backhand and room up high to shoot. After going 0-for-7 in shootouts last season, the Avalanche captain is 2-2 this season, both game-winners.
“It was a great move by Joe,” Avs coach Joel Quenneville said. “It was a huge win. I thought we played a strong game from start to finish.
“Games where (a goalie) only sees a couple shots for a long time can be tough and they got a couple on us, but I liked the response after that. Jose made a big save right after (the disallowed goal) and was real good in the third.”
The Avs put 43 shots on Giguere, not including a couple of hit posts, and again had trouble extending a lead and putting the game away.
“We were terrible tonight, absolutely terrible,” Selanne said. “It would almost be a crime to win tonight. For 30 minutes, it was probably the worst hockey I’ve ever seen in my eight years (with Anaheim). It almost seemed to me the Ducks organization sent the ‘B’ team here.”
About his 500th goal, Selanne said: “It’s a big honor to reach that achievement. I’m not a big number guy, but obviously 500 goals is a lot of goals in this league. I’ve been very lucky to play with the great players, otherwise it would not be possible.”
Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
