The old stuff was there again at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night: A sellout, loud and involved crowd. A communal, derisive chant toward the visitors. And most of all, fast-paced, fun hockey.
Funny how it all happened with the Detroit Red Wings in town for the first time this season.
Unfortunately for the Avalanche, its same, old, poor penalty-killing unit was also in the building, and it helped cost a point in Colorado’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Red Wings before 18,007 fans.
Henrik Zetterberg’s shootout goal past an otherwise brilliant Peter Budaj won the shootout 2-1 for the Wings, who have won seven straight times against the Avalanche and have not lost in Denver since Feb. 8, 2003.
Still, the crowd seemed to go home in a good mood. It saw the Avs basically steal a point from Detroit and seemed to develop a new bond with Budaj, who stopped a career-high 40-of-43 shots through regulation and overtime. He regularly bailed his team out after some sloppy defensive zone passing, especially in a third period and overtime in which Detroit outshot the Avs 18-10.
“Peter was remarkable tonight,” Avs coach Joel Quenneville said. “He was very big. They had the puck a lot. They played a strong third period. But we were missing three regular defensemen, and I thought we did some good things to come up with a point.”
Budaj just couldn’t overcome his team’s continued ineptitude on the penalty kill, however. Detroit went 2-for-6 on the power play, including Robert Lang’s easy one-timer from the weak side, just 1:25 after Milan Hejduk had given his team a 3-2, third-period lead with a shot past six-time Vezina Trophy winner, Dominik Hasek.
Shortly after Hejduk’s goal, though, Colorado defender Kurt Sauer went to the penalty box for tripping, and six seconds later Lang scored, as the Avs were again late reacting on the weak side to a cross-ice pass.
“It’s frustrating that we lost, but I think we battled hard,” said Budaj, starting his sixth straight game. “It’s a big point for us. Everything is big, especially against a team like Detroit.”
The Avs never have been a moral-victory type of team, though, so losing the shootout and for the seventh time in a row to the rival Wings was a disappointment. On the other hand, Budaj got them higher in the standings on a night the Avs were outshot 43-25 and spent much of the game chasing around Detroit’s skilled Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk with the puck.
“Datsyuk was pretty amazing tonight,” said Avs captain Joe Sakic, whose shootout goal briefly evened the score 1-1, followed by Zetterberg’s winner. “Peter was outstanding for us. We were pretty fortunate to get the point, but we’ll take it.”
Avalanche rookie Ben Guite scored his first career NHL goal at 12:03 of the second period, a short-handed score that tied the game 2-2. Guite stole a puck just inside the Avs’ blue line and broke past the Detroit point man before beating Hasek with a shot to the short side off the rush.
“I remember trying to tell myself on the bench to come back to Earth,” Guite said after his goal. “But you always wish your first goal could come in a winning situation.”
The Wings took a 2-1 lead about five minutes earlier, on Datsyuk’s 11th goal. The goal was started by a great poke-check by veteran Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who broke up Hejduk’s break-in pass at the Wings’ blue line, leading to an odd-man rush finished by Datsyuk.
“I thought we had a good team effort today,” said Wings coach Mike Babcock, whose team had lost three in a row. “They had lots of chances, that’s for sure, and I thought we had a good contribution of our own.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
