They weren’t booing.
As the final seconds of the third period ticked off the scoreboard clock Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center, the “Bu-daj, Bu-daj” chant began. It was the sort of in-unison endorsement of a goaltender’s play that has been rare since the retirement of the fellow whose one-syllable name sounds like “Wah.”
When his teammates converged, congratulating him, Colorado goalie Peter Budaj had just finished with a 39-save shutout, his second of the season and fourth of his career, leading the previously struggling Avalanche to a 2-0 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
The Ducks, who looked virtually unbeatable early in the season, not only are 0-2-1 against Colorado this season, but also have lost their past three and have suffered consecutive shutouts at the hands of Dallas backup goalie Mike Smith and Budaj. Anaheim came into the night with the league’s third-best power play, but the Ducks were 0-for-5 with the man advantage vs. Colorado.
“We played really well at the beginning, and that was the key of the whole game,” Budaj said. “The games before, we fell behind early and tried to come back, and that’s tough in this league. … Our penalty kill was tremendous. Guys were blocking shots, and even though they had 39 shots, those shots (were tried) from the angle and guys were clearing the rebounds. Big thanks to them, and this was a big team win.”
“We faced another hot goalie tonight,” said Ducks winger Teemu Selanne, who has 32 goals for the season, but only one in the past six games. “Dallas, same thing. The goalie made unbelievable saves, and it was the same thing tonight. The effort was there, but obviously, if you don’t score the goals, you’re not going to win the games.”
Milan Hejduk opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 17:42 of the second period, beating Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere from the left-wing circle. “(Chris) Pronger was in front of me, and I tried to get it through his five-hole,” Hejduk said. “I guess it went through Giguere’s five-hole, too.”
Rookie Paul Stastny’s 18th of the season made it 2-0 at 18:48 of the second.
Stastny has goals in four straight games, and the Quebec-Colorado franchise record for consecutive games with goals by a rookie is five – set by his uncle, Anton, in the 1980-81 season, only a few months after Paul’s father, Peter, and Anton defected from Czechoslovakia and joined the Nordiques. Paul’s other uncle, Marian, also twice had goals in four consecutive games for Quebec in his rookie season, 1981-82.
The victory snapped a two-game Colorado losing streak and put the Avalanche eight points behind the Minnesota Wild, now holding down the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Avalanche coach Joel Quenne- ville made winger Marek Svatos a healthy scratch for the first time in his career, now in its third season. Svatos has two goals since Dec. 1 and again had problems in the defensive end of the ice at Dallas on Sunday.
Joe Sakic had an assist on Hejduk’s goal, but he remained two goals short of becoming the 17th player in NHL history to reach 600 goals.
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
