Edmonton, Alberta – To Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville, Paul Stastny had been just “out there” in the past five or six games. But not Tuesday night.
Quenneville singled Stastny out as perhaps his team’s best player in the Avs’ 7-6 victory over Edmonton – in a game that saw Andrew Brunette score a hat trick and Pierre Turgeon get three points.
“He played a great game,” Quenneville said. “The last few games … he hadn’t had a lot of production, but he was special tonight.”
Stastny’s four points were a career high, but it wasn’t just his offense that helped out the Avs. He made some excellent defensive plays, including a smart block along the boards of an attempted dump-in by the Oilers with the puck already high in their zone.
Stastny shrugged off any praise.
“We got some bounces and were fortunate on some things tonight,” he said. “But we battled and came out with the win.”
Klee hurt
Avs defenseman Ken Klee was injured and forced out of the game from an errant stick to the mouth from Edmonton’s Raffi Torres.
Klee’s teeth needed work performed by the Oilers’ team dentist, but he returned for the third period.
Turgeon moves up
Avalanche veteran Turgeon moved ahead of former Buffalo Sabres great Gilbert Perreault into 25th place on the all-time NHL scoring list. Turgeon needed two points to tie Perreault for 26th (1,326 points).
Footnotes
Avs defenseman Karlis Skrastins played in his 467th consecutive game. He is 19 short of tying Tim Horton’s all-time NHL mark for consecutive games by a defenseman. … The Avs are now 8-4-1 against Northwest Division teams. … The Oilers won 64 percent of the faceoffs through the first two periods (32-for-50).
