If the Avalanche misses the playoffs, it is going to look back on Tuesday night’s game with a large dose of regret.
Twice blowing three-goal leads in an important Northwest Division game, the Avs lost 6-4 to the Vancouver Canucks at the Pepsi Center — and in the process might have kissed away any hopes at a division title.
Jannik Hansen’s goal with 2:08 left in regulation put the Canucks up 5-4. Daniel Sedin added an empty-netter.
The Avs stopped doing all the things that got them big early leads, and goalie Craig Anderson had one of his poorer outings in a while.
Before the game was 14 minutes old, the Avs already had a 3-0 lead, with two of the goals coming from the NHL’s leading rookie scorer, Matt Duchene.
Duchene’s second of the period, at 13:26, was his 23rd goal of the season. It stayed 3-0 after one period, but the second was a bit of a nightmare for the Avs.
While they did get a goal from newcomer Peter Mueller after he stole the puck from Vancouver’s Mason Raymond in the offensive zone, Canucks forward Mikael Samuelsson got a hat trick in the period.
The former Red Wing’s third goal of the period, at 18:18, made it a 4-3 game and set an ominous tone for the final period. Anderson seemed to be fighting the puck in the period, but he didn’t get a lot of help on Samuelsson’s third goal; the Avs’ top line, led by Paul Stastny, ceded too much ground in front of the net.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com and
