All the big shots-on-goal advantages and all the puck-possession time advantages don’t amount to a hill of beans if a hockey team doesn’t have the advantage in the little, fundamental areas too.
In Game 3 of a playoff series Monday night, the Avalanche was like the pretty, newly constructed house — except for that leak in the downstairs bathroom and the light switches that don’t work.
A bad power play — one that didn’t score and one that got scored on — primarily did the Avs in as they lost another overtime game, 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild at the Pepsi Center.
The Wild leads the best-of-seven series two games to one, with Game 4 tonight.
Pierre Marc-Bouchard’s goal at 11:58 of OT won it for Minnesota, which was the stronger looking team in the extra session. The Avalanche defense looked tired, and the scoring chances dried up at the other end — after the Avs put 39 shots on the Wild in the first three periods and had the better jump.
The Avs were 5:04 away from defeat, when Joe Sakic rode to the rescue again. The captain scrambled to a loose puck that rolled out from the crease, and backhanded it past Backstrom, who was pushed into the net by Andrew Brunette. But the reason the goal stood was because Brunette was pushed into Backstrom by Minnesota’s Aaron Voros.
The Wild took a 2-1 lead on a short-handed goal by Brian Rolston, on a 2-on-1 break with Pavol Demitra.
The only goal of the first two periods was an Andrew Brunette layup, at 15:19 of the first. All Brunette had to do was put back the rebound of Joe Sakic’s shot, into a partially open net.
The Avs did not lack for opportunities to take a bigger lead entering the third. They had a 5-on-3 for 10 seconds late in the first and three more power plays in the second, but overpassed a little and didn’t finish a couple of other golden chances. Wojtek Wolski had the best, right before the buzzer in the second. He had Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom down after a rebound, but put the shot right into his chest.
It didn’t seem like the lead would hold up through regulation, and it didn’t. The Wild tied it up at 7:13 of the third, when the Avs’ tandem of Kurt Sauer and Adam Foote were caught getting back slowly on a dump-in. Todd Fedoruk, a journeyman with little offensive history, got his second point of the series when he backhanded a pass out of the corner to a charging Mikko Koivu, and Koivu shot the puck past Jose Theodore out of midair.
Theodore made a couple of great stops in overtime to keep things going, robbing Demitra and Marian Gaborik from in close.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
