There will be no retirement ceremony with sentimental speeches, a video tribute and presentation of a new set of golf clubs.
But the Avalanche’s “blueberry” third jersey, destined to be replaced in the uniform cycle next season after six seasons in service, is going out in style.
Jarome Iginla got his 22nd goal of the season and had one of the Avalanche successes in the shootout as Colorado beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 at the Pepsi Center on Thursday night. Colorado is 8-2 in the third jerseys this season, with two more pre-designated appearances remaining.
Ryan O’Reilly also scored in the shootout, while for the Devils, only Jacob Josefson beat Semyon Varlamov, who was back in the Avalanche crease after missing Tuesday’s loss to Los Angeles with a groin muscle issue. Varla- mov had 23 saves in regulation and overtime, allowing only a second-period goal by the Devils’ Andy Greene on a blast from straight out.
With 13 saves in a scoreless first period, Varlamov kept the Devils from jumping out to an early lead, and the Avalanche managed to pull out the win.
“He was phenomenal in the first, made some great saves,” Avs coach Patrick Roy said of Varlamov. “In the second and third, I thought our legs got better.”
Said Varlamov: “I don’t want to talk about the groin issues, to be honest with you. When you play a lot of games, there are times in the year when you are going to feel uncomfortable, and you have to battle through.”
Several of the teams also chasing a playoff spot in the Western Conference were involved in later games Thursday. The Avs came out of the night six points behind the Kings, who moved into the second wild-card spot.
In an unusual move for the Avalanche when games on back-to-back nights aren’t involved, Colorado didn’t go through a morning skate Thursday. The only Avs on the ice were the three goaltenders plus injured skaters with goaltending coach Francois Allaire. After Varlamov faced shots from his injured teammates, he deemed himself ready to go against the Devils after missing the Tuesday loss to the Kings. That ended his streak of consecutive starts at 22 games.
“I told the coach I felt good and I was ready to play,” Varlamov said. “He made the decision to put me in the net.”
After a scoreless first period in which the Avalanche got only three shots on New Jersey goalie Cory Schneider, Iginla put Colorado up 1-0 at 2:27 of the second. By that point, John Mitchell had replaced Jordan Caron on the line with Iginla and Matt Duchene, and the goal was a blue-collar one, with Mitchell preventing the Devils from getting the puck out of danger in front.
“I just kind of slashed his stick and kind of took the body,” Mitchell said of Greene, the Devils defenseman. “It went off my skate, and I think it might have gone off Dutchy’s skate and before you know it, it was just behind me and Iggy was coming down the pipe. He made a good shot. … Oh, yeah, it was a work of art. I kicked it to Dutchy, he kicks it to Iggy and it’s a goal.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
