Nashville, Tenn. – The Avalanche happily rang in the New Year on Monday, ending a three-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over Nashville.
Although Colorado continued its penalty-killing woes – allowing the Predators to score two of their three goals off the power play – it produced impressive offense with two goals from rookie winger Wojtek Wolski and three assists from center Joe Sakic.
With the output, Sakic moved into 10th place on the NHL all-time points list (1,533).
“It was definitely a great way to start the new year,” Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville said. “I thought we did a lot of good things. I thought we had one of our stronger games of the season. The guys worked, and it was much needed, too.”
The Avalanche scored three goals in the first seven minutes of the second period to take a commanding 4-1 lead.
A goal by Milan Hejduk broke a 1-1 tie 2:58 into the second. Sparked by a shot from Tyler Arnason, Marek Svatos tried several times to put home the rebound before Hejduk finally finished for a 2-1 advantage.
Colorado scored again a little less than three minutes later when Andrew Brunette backhanded a shot around Nashville defenseman Greg Zanon and past goalie Chris Mason, who had moved up and slightly out of position.
A faceoff win by Sakic led to the third goal of the period as Ossi Vaananen took possession and ripped a shot past Mason 6:44 into the second.
The assist by Sakic was his second of the game and moved him ahead of Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Paul Coffey on the career points list. He tallied his third on an empty-netter by Wolski in the final minute.
“It’s a special feeling, but the most important thing is winning the game,” Sakic said. “I guess at the end of your career you look back at those things, but right now I am just concerned with winning.”
The Predators cut Colorado’s lead to 4-2 before the period was over on a power-play goal by Alexander Radulov. The shot was a rebound of a stick block by Colorado goalie Peter Budaj, who stopped 26-of-29 Predators attempts. Radulov’s attempt actually bounced off Colorado defenseman Brett Clark before going in.
The Predators converted 2-of-4 power-play opportunities. Jason Arnott, who had two scores on the night, had the Predators’ other power-play tally, tying the game 1-1 at the end of the first period.
The Avalanche penalty-kill unit has now allowed 11 goals in its past 24 attempts.
“I don’t know if they are bad goals – they are top-shelf goals or ones on the post like Bill Guerin did for St. Louis and like Arnott did tonight,” Wolski said. “They aren’t goals that many people would stop. I think they are going to go in, but we are just trying to capitalize on our power plays when we do get them.”
The Avalanche was 0-for-5 on its power-play opportunities against Nashville, and is 1-for-16 in the past three games.
