From Jan. 15 on, defenseman Nick Holden has scored all of the Avalanche’s power-play goals.
All two of them.
Among the Colorado accomplishments Monday night in a 5-2 victory over Arizona at the frigid Pepsi Center was the ending of its streak of scoreless power plays at 32 when Holden beat Coyotes goalie Mike McKenna from the right point to give the Avalanche a 3-1 lead at 14:58 of the first period. Alex Tanguay was stationed in front of McKenna, and Holden’s shot got past McKenna to the short side.
“‘Red’ made a really good play to suck them in and kind of put it over to me on the tee,” Holden said of defenseman Zach Redmond. ” ‘Tangs’ had an awesome screen in front, and the goalie didn’t even see the shot coming.”
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Holden also had the Avalanche’s previous power-play goal, the game-winner against the Panthers in Florida a month and a day earlier. That goal wasn’t artistic, with Holden’s shot from the top of the slot going off the stick of Florida’s Scottie Upshall and past goalie Roberto Luongo to break a 2-2 tie in the third period. But it became more notable as the Avalanche didn’t get another power-goal in its next 11 games.
“It’s obviously something we’ve been discussing, talking about all the time,” Holden said. “We need the power play to be going if we’re going to have a good run here to get into the playoffs, so we hope we can take that goal and start scoring some more and help us put together the stretch that we need to get back in there.”
Colorado coach Patrick Roy said the goal was a relief, adding: “And the way we scored it, Tanguay had a great screen in front of the net. That’s exactly what we’ve been talking about all along. You don’t have to be perfect all the time, with those tic-tack-toe plays around the net.”
The end of the drought came after Cody McLeod and Matt Duchene scored nine seconds apart (at 2:54 and 3:03 of the first period, respectively) to get the Avalanche out to a quick 2-0 lead, and that set the tone.
Tyson Barrie and Gabe Landeskog had the other goals as the Avalanche romped and won its second straight to improve to 24-22-11 and 59 points. Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov faced only five shots — including none in the second period — and allowed Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s first-period goal before Reto Berra came on to play the final 20 minutes. Berra hadn’t played for Colorado since Dec. 5 and had a five-game conditioning stint with Lake Erie last month. Berra ended up allowing one goal on 12 shots.
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Duchene had an assist to go with his goal, which came off a setup pass from Jarome Iginla, and he now has two goals and four assists in the past four games.
“The production is starting to come,” Duchene said. “It’s great to see the spread-out scoring through the lineup. That’s important and the win is even more important than that.”
McKenna, 31, now the backup to Mike Smith, was playing his first game of the season for the Coyotes after being recalled from the AHL in the wake of Arizona’s trade of Devan Dubnyk to Minnesota last month. He previously played 21 games with Tampa Bay, New Jersey and Columbus and otherwise has been an AHL journeyman. He was welcomed back to the NHL with an early barrage, and at the other end Varlamov, so often subjected to sieges in the Avs net, might have felt like having a cup of coffee.
Arizona’s shotless second period was the first time in franchise history the Avalanche didn’t allow a shot in a period. Eight times previously, Colorado allowed only one shot in a period, the most recent Jan. 14, 2012, at Dallas.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
Power-play drought over
After Nick Holden scored on a power play at 11:03 of the third period at Florida on Jan. 15, the Avalanche went a month without another man-advantage goal until Holden connected again Monday night at 14:58 of the first period against Arizona. Holden’s goals were on the Avalanche’s final power play of the night at Florida and on the first of the game against Arizona.
Avalanche’s 0-for-32 drought:
Jan. 17 at Tampa Bay 0-for-3
Jan. 19 at St. Louis 0-for-3
Jan. 21 vs. Boston 0-for-5
Jan. 27 at Nashville 0-for-2
Jan. 30 vs. Nashville 0-for-4
Feb. 3 at Dallas 0-for-2
Feb. 5 vs. Detroit 0-for-3
Feb. 7 at Minnesota 0-for-2
Feb. 8 at Winnipeg 0-for-3
Feb. 12 vs. N.Y. Rangers 0-for-4
Feb. 14 vs. Dallas 0-for-1
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
