As usual, the Avalanche’s game against the Nashville Predators on Friday night at the Pepsi Center had all the grace and beauty of sausage meat going through factory grinders. And when it was over, the Avalanche held on for a 2-1 victory, its fifth in a row.
“It’s an ugly win, but it has to be an ugly win against them. They’re a tough team,” said Avs defender John-Michael Liles, who had an assist on a first-period power-play goal by Matt Duchene. “They’re in your face constantly. You get the puck, and you have to make your decision before you even get it.”
Duchene and fellow rookie Brandon Yip supplied the offense, and goalie Craig Anderson was again the defensive backbone in Colorado’s victory, which put it back in first place in the Northwest Division.
The Avs matched the disciplined Predators’ work ethic throughout, and also got a couple of breaks. Patric Hornqvist hit the post near the end with what would have been a tying goal for Nashville, and Hornqvist’s goalie-interference penalty on Anderson at 12:29 of the third period wiped out Jason Arnott’s tying goal.
Anderson, who has been run into a lot harder without the benefit of a penalty, was grateful for the call.
“I established my position at the top of the crease, and as the shot was coming, the guy kind of bumped me and knocked me off balance a little bit. It wasn’t a huge hit, but just enough to lose my balance and lose sight of the puck,” said Anderson, who made 29 saves and has a 1.35 goals- against average and .960 save percentage in his last five starts. “The refs did a great job tonight, and I think they’ve gotten a lot better at it (interference) lately.”
Duchene, who earned the game’s No. 1 star with his 16th goal, had a team-high five shots on net and had a 69 percent success rate in winning faceoffs, said his team was prepared for a hard game.
“I think our guys played really well. They forecheck hard, but we matched their intensity,” Duchene said. “Obviously, Andy was interfered with. Nine times out of 10, he makes that save. It was a good call by the officials. We’ve had a lot of time this year when guys have crashed into him, and it hasn’t been called.”
Not surprisingly, the men wearing jerseys with a snarling, saber-toothed cat on them saw things a little differently.
“I looked at it again. To me, it’s a good goal. At worst, it’s incidental contact, no goal. But obviously I’m not a referee and there’s not a whole . . . lot I can do about it right now,” Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. “Anderson is coming outside the blue, and Hornqvist is coming to the net. There’s slight contact, but at worst it should be incidental contact, no goal. That’s why that rule is in there.”
Duchene put home Paul Stastny’s crossing pass with the Avs on a 5-on-3 power play for his 16th goal of the season and fifth in the last five games.
Yip made it 2-0 in the second, jamming home a loose puck after some good work down low by Darcy Tucker and Ryan Stoa.
But Nashville got back in the game with a power-play goal a couple of minutes later by defenseman Cody Franson. That would be it, though, despite two power plays in the third for Nashville, including a 6-on-4 advantage for the game’s final 34 seconds. The Stastny penalty that contributed to the Predators’ advantage at the end, though, was actually a good one — as his hooking minor might have prevented a goal.
“When you’re trying to prevent a scoring chance that late in the game, you have to do whatever you can. The puck was laying there in the front of the net, and you have to do something about it,” Avs coach Joe Sacco said. “We knew it was going to be a tight-checking game, and they played a strong game. I don’t think it was our best game, but we found a way to win tonight, and we were pretty resilient.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com and
Avs Recap
The Post’s three stars
1. Matt Duchene.
Scored a goal and had a team-high five shots on goal for the Avs.
2. Brandon Yip.
Scored the game-winning goal for Avs.
3. Cody Franson.
Made a great shot for Nashville’s only goal.
What you might have missed
Colorado’s 5-on-3 power- play goal in the first was its seventh of the season, most in the NHL.
Up next
Vs. Dallas, Sunday, 6 p.m.
Adrian Dater, The Denver Post
