Astute coaches of NHL teams coming into Denver might start approaching their No. 1 goaltenders and pointedly ask: You’re due for a night off, aren’t ya?
Anaheim’s Curtis McElhinney, a former Colorado College star, Saturday became the latest backup goalie to frustrate Colorado, posting a 25-save shutout in the Ducks’ 3-0 victory at the Pepsi Center and dealing the reeling Avalanche its fifth loss in the past six games.
Colorado didn’t drop any farther in the Western Conference standings, but remained in 12th place and ultimately failed to take advantage of a stretch in which the Avalanche played 17 of 21 games at home.
Winger Corey Perry had a hat trick for the Ducks, completing it with an empty-netter with 17.3 seconds remaining and increasing his team-leading total to 28 goals for the season.
Since the Christmas break, the list of backups to beat Colorado includes Detroit’s Chris Osgood, the New York Islanders’ Kevin Poulin, Phoenix’s Jason LaBarbera, Minnesota’s Jose Theodore and now McElhinney, who was playing his 15th game of the season and usually watches Jonas Hiller do the work in the Anaheim net.
“We have to make it harder on them,” Avalanche captain Adam Foote said. “When a goalie’s playing like that, we have to find a way to get an ugly goal.”
Avalanche coach Joe Sacco made an obvious reference to the Matt Duchene- and Paul Stastny-centered lines, which didn’t get much done, although Stastny had five of the shots on McElhinney.
“We need production from our best players, the guys that eat up the minutes,” Sacco said. “Those are the guys we lean on to score. They have to be better. We had some chances . . . not enough quality chances. And their best player (Perry) was real good tonight.”
Winger Chris Stewart again was unproductive in his eighth game back in the lineup after recovering from a broken hand.
“With Duchene’s line, with (Milan Hejduk) and Stewie, they’re getting caught out there,” Sacco said. “They’re overextending their shifts. I think they’re trying to do too much and getting caught out there too long.”
Colorado is within hailing distance of a playoff spot, but it’s going to take a reawakening to get back in the race.
“Anytime you can put a string of wins together, you can get right back in it,” Stastny said. “On the reverse side, if you put together a string of losses, you can quickly get out of it. That’s what’s happening now, but there’s a lot of time left. Going into this road trip, we’re not looking at how many games we have left, but looking at this next game and doing what we have to do to get out of this funk.”
Hiller didn’t suit up for the Ducks because of dizziness and stomach pains. McElhinney wasn’t stunningly heroic in this one, in part because Colorado spent much of the time short-handed, killing off 5-of-6 Anaheim power plays in the first two periods alone. But he made some tough saves in getting his second shutout of the season.
