For the few hundred or so Pepsi Center attendees with the name “Crosby” on the back of their game attire Saturday, it was money well spent. Pittsburgh Penguins young uberstar Sidney Crosby gave them a goal and an assist to cheer about.
But there was no matinee-idol smile on Sid The Kid’s face when the game was over, not after a guy with the generic name of David Jones outplayed him and everyone else on the Pittsburgh team in a 5-3 Avalanche victory.
Scoring two goals and assisting on another, Jones was the No. 1 star of Colorado’s third straight victory.
“It was exciting to play against them. They’ve got some superstars over there, and we don’t get to see them much,” said Jones, who scored the Avs’ second and fifth goals in support of goalie Andrew Raycroft, who ran his record to 9-1-0 in his third straight start.
It wasn’t just Jones’ tangible numbers on the score sheet that made the winning difference for his team. The things that didn’t — such as his outracing a Pittsburgh defender to prevent an icing violation — played a role as well.
“I don’t think the ‘D’ man expected anybody to try and win that puck. I guess I maybe surprised him a little,” Jones said.
Jones’ second goal, at 8:28 of the third period, was the backbreaker for a Pittsburgh team that does not appear anything close to resembling the outfit that pushed Detroit to six games in last spring’s Stanley Cup Finals. The goal came just 51 seconds after Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal had made it a 4-3 game with a fancy short-handed, unassisted goal against Raycroft (21 saves).
Jones, who has made it more of a habit to go to the net not just with the puck but without it, tapped home an easy rebound chance after Penguins relief goalie Marc-Andre Fleury failed to corral a Tyler Arnason bid on the power play.
In becoming the first goalie in franchise history to win nine of his first 10 decisions since Stephane Fiset did it for Quebec in 1994-95, Raycroft was solid if not spectacular. He was beaten through the 5-hole on a Crosby shot that tied it 2-2 at 8:44 of the second, and was beaten from fairly long range on Staal’s short-handed wrister. But Raycroft did make one great save, on Evgeni Malkin in the second period, and was good in the final few minutes when the Penguins desperately tried to get it to a 5-4 game.
“We’re just buying into the defensive side of the game,” Raycroft said. “The forwards are coming back, and we’re getting the puck out of the zone and making safe plays at the (blue) lines. Today, it was just basically a perfect game by us in that sense. We really didn’t give them that much.”
Still, any team with a Crosby and Malkin on the ice can always make it interesting.
“The biggest thing is keeping them off the power play,” Raycroft said. “Then, they don’t have that extra second and space that makes them so dangerous. But I can’t say that I miss playing against them a bunch of times every year.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
Avs Recap
The Post’s three stars
1. David Jones.
Avs rookie scored two goals and added an assist.
2. Wojtek Wolski.
Avs center had his third straight two-point game.
3. Evgeni Malkin.
Penguins star had a goal and assist.
What you might have missed
The Avs are now 14-2-3 against Pittsburgh since moving to Denver.
Up next
At Columbus, Tuesday, 5 p.m.
Adrian Dater, The Denver Post
