ANAHEIM — With its playoff hopes all but at the Fantasyland stages, the will finish up its 2014-15 road schedule Friday at Anaheim against the Ducks and Saturday at Los Angeles against the Kings.
Colorado is eight points behind Winnipeg, which holds the second of the two Western Conference wild-card spots, and the Jets don’t play again until Saturday afternoon against Vancouver.
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If the Avalanche (35-30-12) wins its final five games to reach 92 points, Winnipeg still could finish ahead of Colorado for playoff purposes with only two points in its last five, but there are other complications for the Avalanche, since it also would have to climb over three other teams to reach the wild-card spot. Regardless, if Colorado loses in regulation Friday at Anaheim, there is no way the Avalanche can pass the Jets.
, Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said he would stick with his previously announced short-term goaltending rotation, coming back with Reto Berra against Anaheim and going with Semyon Varlamov against Los Angeles. And he added the rotation would continue through the three-game homestand, with Varlamov likely facing Nashville Tuesday and Chicago April 11, with Berra playing against Winnipeg Thursday.
Berra made 25 saves against the Sharks in his third appearance in five games, and didn’t have much of a chance on any of San Jose’s first three goals. In the second period, Avalanche winger Dennis Everberg blocked two slap shots by Brent Burns, but after Burns retrieved the puck again, his pass to the front of the net was tipped by Scott Hannan past Berra.
In the third period, Berra made two saves in close before Sharks rookie Chris Tierney collected the loose puck and scored to make it 2-0. Patrick Marleau was uncovered in the slot on his goal that made it 3-1 and the Sharks added two empty-netters.
“I thought he played really well, he was very good in the first,” Roy said of Berra. “A few nice tips in front of him and I thought he did a really good job. I was very happy with his performance.”
After Varlamov was the ironman for much of the season, and with Calvin Pickard playing well when called up from Lake Erie to fill in as the starter when Varlamov was injured, Berra clearly is on trial down the stretch as the Avalanche attempts to decide whether to write off the Swiss goalie. He was acquired in March 2014 and signed to a three-year extension and is under contract through 2016-17.
Berra said of his showing against the Sharks: “It was good, but not good enough. Could be a little bit better today, but overall, I’m happy. I didn’t play that much in the past, so I have to go step by step and go with the positive things I did. I did a lot of positive things today.”
Berra noted it is “just my second year in the league, especially this year, I didn’t play much. I cannot think like I can go right away to the top. I have to really stay focused and use every practice, especially every game I can to, do the little things right.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group contributed to this report.
