The Avalanche won its fourth-consecutive game Thursday, defeating Columbus 2-0 at the . The game story is here.
Notebook is here.
THREE STARS
- . Made 35 saves for his second shutout of the season.
- . Had the game-winning goal and an assist on the empty-netter.
- . Avs defenseman logged 23:22 and helped backstop the shutout.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
Columbus won the faceoff comparison 38-28 and the Avalanche remains last in the league with a 45.1 percent faceoff success rate on the season.
NEXT UP
Minnesota, Saturday at the Pepsi Center
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
Trusted souls. Center Carl Soderberg and wingers and make up the Avalanche’s second line. Yeah, they began the first week of the season as the fourth line and have since often been stamped “the third line” — particularly on the Avs’ printed line chart — but based on ice time and coach ‘s interviews, they make up the second line. Soderberg logged a season-high 21:05 Thursday and Nieto and Comeau were at 15:11 and 17:26, respectively. Alex Kerfoot’s line with wingers A.J. Greer and logged 12:20, 7:36 and 10:06, respectively. That’s your fourth line.
Secret of success. The Avs were 1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. They continue to kill it on special teams. Colorado is 10-for-34 (29.4 percent) on the power play in its last nine games and has killed off 39 of its last 40 penalties. If they keep this up, I’m betting they make the playoffs.
Impressive numbers. The Avs are 9-3-1 in their last 13 games and extended their win streak to a season-high four games while improving to 4-1 in their six-game homestand. They are 5-1 at home in their last six and tied for fourth among Western Conference teams with 14 victories.
Playoffs? The Avalanche (21-16-3, 45 points) is two points behind Minnesota for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. But the Avs have a game in hand over the Wild (22-16-3, 47 points), which invades the PC for that big game Saturday.
Quoteworthy. “Itap really good to get the win. I thought we battled hard. Itap never easy to win a game 1-0 but we played the right way. We put the puck in deep and we killed some time, especially in the third there at the end. So, a big two points for us” — Bernier
