Joel Quenneville wasn’t ready to dust off his Jim Mora “Playoffs? Don’t talk about … Playoffs? You kidding me?” impression after the Avalanche blew another important divisional home game Saturday, 3-2 to the Edmonton Oilers.
Thirty games remain on the Avs’ schedule, with six points separating them from the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. But if the Avs can’t beat teams such as the Oilers or Minnesota Wild in an extended homestand, what will be the reason for optimism when they go on the road for 15 out of 21 games?
When the Avs don’t win a game in which they outshoot the opponent 39-28, as they did Saturday, what’s going to happen when they don’t have the offense quite so cranked up on future nights?
Playoffs? After back-to-back division losses, the Avs’ 12th of the season at home?
“It’s certainly a tough loss,” Quenneville said. “We had the perfect third period, just like the other night (against the Wild). It’s almost like a carbon copy of what happened.”
It was the same old stuff for the Avs at home, in front of a less- than-capacity Pepsi Center showing: lots of shots, lots of good scoring chances and a generally solid effort overall. But an inability to finish the big, clutch chances and the inability to keep the opponent from suffering the same affliction.
Thursday night, it was the Wild’s Marian Gaborik who scored the late-third period goal to break a tie and beat the Avs. This time, goals by Ryan Smyth and Shawn Horcoff 30 seconds apart, starting with Smyth’s tip-in with 7:11 left, broke open a 1-1 game.
Smyth’s tip was a redirection of Edmonton’s third shot of the period. Horcoff’s was the fourth. The Avs had 14 shots to that point on Oilers veteran Dwayne Roloson, and would get five more before the final horn.
“We had our opportunities,” Avs defender Jordan Leopold said. “That’s two in a row where we had a tie game going into the third period. We’ve got to find a way to win those games, simple as that. The last two have been four-point games, and you can’t falter. One little mistake and the puck ends up in the back of your net. It’s a big loss. But we have to regroup and get ready for Tuesday.”
Smyth, the NHL’s undisputed master of tip-ins and redirections, got the blade of his stick on Matt Greene’s drive following a faceoff, beating Peter Budaj.
On the following shift, the Avs’ top line centered by Joe Sakic was caught running around too much in its own zone, leading to Horcoff’s goal after Sakic was knocked off the puck behind the net. Sakic scored a goal with 31 seconds left, but that was it.
“We didn’t bear down and put them away,” Sakic said. “We have to keep going. You’re not going to score on all your chances, but we just have to find a way to win (games).”
Sakic and Ian Laperriere missed on partially open nets, and Tyler Arnason had probably the game’s best scoring opportunity in front in the third period, but opted for one more fake with the puck and found himself behind the net.
“It stinks that these two games we should have had points, but we got nothing out of it,” Avs winger Andrew Brunette said. “It’s extremely frustrating. We knew the importance of the games, and I thought we played two pretty good games.”
Not good enough.
Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
