VANCOUVER, British Columbia — They still carry the title of “first place team.” They still can rightly be classified as a “major NHL surprise,” with the calendar nearing December.
But the losses are starting to come with more regularity for the Avalanche, gradually stripping away the shiny veneer of being the early upstarts that had the league abuzz.
The Avs lost their second consecutive game Friday night, 5-2 to the Vancouver Canucks at General Motors Place. Colorado is 1-4-1 in its past six. For the second straight game, a two-goal lead and bright prospects of two points to come turned into a final scene of Avs players trudging through the player tunnel with heads down.
“As soon as you start playing with the lead like you’re trying not to lose, you will lose,” Avs defenseman Kyle Quincey said. “We have to learn that. We’ve done that two games in a row now, and we’ve got to stop it. That’s the frustrating part, we see how good we are in the first two periods and then we come out and play a totally different style of hockey, and we’re not good enough to play like that.”
Before the game was 10 minutes old, the Avalanche had a 2-0 lead on goals by David Jones and Matt Duchene, and generally took the play to Vancouver much of the time through the 40-minute mark — despite a power-play goal by Vancouver’s Christian Ehrhoff that made it 2-1 entering the third period.
Colorado even started the third on the power play, but that and everything else went wrong in the next 20 minutes. Ehrhoff tied it at 5:12, and Henrik Sedin scored the game-winner after Avs goalie Craig Anderson overcommitted on Alex Burrows off to the left side, leading to a nice drop pass and open-net shot for Sedin.
Anderson wasn’t especially happy with his play on the winning goal, but wasn’t thrilled with how his teammates gave up too many odd-man rushes in the third either.
“I had a two-pad stack, and it’s not in the game anymore and there’s a reason for it. It takes you right out of the play,” Anderson said. “The guy made a nice pass back to the third guy where, once again, an odd-man rush against. We’ve got to make sure we don’t turn over the puck and have odd-man rushes. If that’s a 3-on-3, that play never happens.”
Anderson allowed two more goals, including a long shot to Mikael Samuelsson that bounced past him.
Avs coach Joe Sacco preached to his team before the third period not to sit back with the lead. That nobody seemed to listen explained the sour look on his face afterward.
“You can’t sit back in this league. You can’t. That’s two games in a row now where we get the lead in the third period and get back on our heels,” Sacco said. “I thought we played pretty well in the first two periods and then a couple missed assignments, a bit too casual in our defensive zone coverage, a bad penalty and the next thing you know the game is out of reach.
“Instead of forcing the issue, we get caught in between, and you can’t play this game like that. That’s not how we want to play. Even when you’re up a goal you want to keep pressure on the other team, and we didn’t do a good job of that.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
Avs Recap
The Post’s three stars
1. Christian Ehrhoff.
Scored two goals for Vancouver.
2. Henrik Sedin.
Scored the game-winner for the Canucks.
3. Mikael Samuelsson.
Had a goal and two assists for Vancouver.
What you might have missed
The Canucks were credited with nine takeaways, to four by the Avs.
Up next
Philadelphia, Monday at 7 p.m., Pepsi Center.
Adrian Dater, The Denver Post
