Avalanche rallies for shootout win over Detroit
A four-minute penalty kill got the Colorado Avalanche's comeback started.
Marek Svatos and Milan Hejduk scored shootout goals to complete the Avalanche's rally to a 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night.
Colorado, which has won four straight, rallied from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits in the third period.
Cody McLeod had two goals, and Matt Duchene also scored for Colorado. Ryan O'Reilly recorded two assists and Craig Anderson stopped 28 shots. He also turned aside Henrik Zetterberg and Ville Leino in the shootout.
"I think resiliency was the key thing for us," Anderson said.
The Avalanche pointed to the killing of Svatos' double minor for high-sticking, in which he cut Jason Williams' face 3:09 into the third period, as the game's turning point.
"Killing that four-minute penalty gave us a lift," said McLeod, who also fought Brad May with 2:36 left in the first period.
Justin Abdelkader, Todd Bertuzzi and Valtteri Filppula scored for Detroit. Chris Osgood made 25 saves. Williams had a goal scored in the shootout.
"It's disappointing having a 2-0 lead and 3-2 toward the end of the game," Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "We played a solid game. We had some breakdowns, especially on a couple of goals.
"Disappointing to lose the way we did."
McLeod's second goal made it 3-3 with 2:32 left in regulation. He beat Osgood from the bottom of the left circle after taking a pass from O'Reilly.
"It was just kind of an open net," McLeod said. "O'Reilly made a great pass to me."
Filppula had given the Red Wings a 3-2 lead with 6:33 left.
The Avalanche scored twice in a 2:37 span in the middle of the third to tie it at 2. McLeod got the Avalanche within 2-1 at 9:08 when he beat Osgood with a wrist shot from the inside edge of the right circle.
"Just beat him 5-hole. I was just trying to get a shot away," McLeod said
Duchene tied it at 2 with 8:15 left with his first NHL goal, beating Osgood with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.
"We did a lot of good things in the third period," Colorado coach Joe Sacco said.
Abdelkader opened the scoring 3:25 into the game when he put in the rebound of Darren Helm's shot. Helm started the play by taking the puck away from defenseman Kyle Cumiskey. It was Abdelkader's first NHL regular-season goal.
"I think we played pretty well. We had a lot of opportunities," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "I thought we squandered the four-minute power play."
Bertuzzi's power-play goal made it 2-0 at 1:14 of the second period when he poked in Zetterberg's pass from just outside the crease. It was Bertuzzi's first goal of the season.
NOTES: Detroit C Pavel Datsyuk missed his second game with an upper-body injury. ... Colorado D Adam Foote was hit in the face by Lidstrom's slap shot, but wasn't cut. He returned to the bench after being attended to on the ice and didn't miss a shift. ... The 18-year-old Duchene took a picture with Red Wings' great and Hockey Hall of Famer Gordie Howe after the game. Howe sat with Duchene's parents during the game.
