WHAT A GAME! WHAT A PERFORMANCE BY THE AVS ON OPENING NIGHT! Sorry for the caps, but its an exciting time to be an Avalanche fan, truly is the start of a new era in Avalanche hockey. The Avs dominated the Ducks from start to finish in this game, scoring 6 goals on route to a 6-1 win (Ducks ruined Varly's shutout with 7 seconds left). Ryan O'Reilly got things going in the first, intercepting a Francois Beauchemin pass he went in all alone on Viktor Fasth and made no mistake. The Avs would take the 1-0 lead into the intermission, as they outshot the Ducks 14-7 in the period and really pushed the pace of the game. Things stayed the same way in the 2nd, as the Avs would score 3 straight goals. Steve Downie made it 2-0 on the PP, as he converted a Ryan O'Reilly rebound for his 1st goal since February 25, 2012. John Mitchell would make it 3-0 during 4-on-4 play, as Tyson Barrie fed Mitchell the puck and raced down the ice for a 2-on-1, Mitchell made no mistake beating Fasth. Jamie McGinn would make it 4-0 towards the end of the 2nd, as a nifty pass from rookie Nathan MacKinnon setup McGinn for his 1st of the season. That was also Nathan MacKinnon's 1st NHL point, in his 1st NHL game. McGinn would make it 5-0 in the 3rd, as he took another feed from MacKinnon and beat Fasth, a nifty tic-tac-toe from Parenteau to MacKinnon to McGinn. Matt Duchene made it 6-0 on the PP, another nifty tic-tac-toe from Tanguay to Downie to Duchene. The Ducks would score with 7 seconds left, as new Duck Jakob Silfverberg beat Varlamov on a rebound. The game ended with some serious bad blood, as Ben Lovejoy tripped up Nathan MacKinnon with a dirty knee-on-knee the Avs were not happy, especially Patrick Roy. As the game ended Roy was screaming at Bruce Boudreau, even getting right up against the glass between the benches and it fell over into the Ducks side. Roy had some serious fire in his eyes, this guy cares about his job and his players and he isn't going to take nonsense like that. MacKinnon was okay after the incident, and what a performance in his first NHL game. What a game from the Avs, from the stellar play of Varlamov to the 6 goals to the solid defensive performance. The Avs 3 new D-pairings were all good tonight, Johnson with Hejda, Barrie with Guenin and Sarich with Benoit. I particularly liked the play of Andre Benoit, he was calm and cool in his own end but really jumped up into the play offensively quite often. Offensively the Avs were solid on all 4 lines, in particular the line of O'Reilly-Duchene-Downie was a handful for the Ducks every time they took the ice. I also liked the play of McGinn-MacKinnon-Parenteau, they were solid offensively and were strong on the forecheck. The Avs won the special teams battle, scoring 2 PP goals in 5 chances and killing off both Ducks PPs. Semyon Varlamov deserves full credit for his performance, he was brilliant from start to finish making key saves that allowed the Avs to get their chances offensively. Overall a phenomenal performance on opening night, what a game!
Three Stars:
3. Ryan O'Reilly - Factor got things rolling for the Avs, scoring the 1st goal of the season in the 1st. He would add an assist in the 3rd, and finished the game with 1 goal, 1 assist and 6 shots on goal as well as a game-high 4 takeaways.
2. Nathan MacKinnon - Talk about a great NHL debut, the #1 overall pick in this summer's draft was all over the ice tonight. He collected his first NHL point with a nice feed to Jamie McGinn, and set up McGinn again in the 3rd for 2 assists in the game. He also got into a nice scrum with Ben Lovejoy in the 1st, gettign a rough penalty for his work. Overall a great NHL debut
1. Semyon Varlamov - In a game with 6 goals how is the goalie #1 star? Simple, Varlamov deserves it 100% for his play tonight. He was simply brilliant from start to finish, allowing only 1 goal with 7 seconds left in an otherwise flawless victory. He made 35 saves on 36 shots, collecting his 1st win of the season. Varlamov is really benefiting from the prescence of Head Coach Patrick Roy, and he looks to have a rebound season his year.
Play of the Game - Matt Duchene's goal gets it tonight, a brilliant tic-tac-toe from Tanguay to Downie to Duchene to the back of the net. Tanguay made a ridiculous cross-ice pass from the point to Downie at the doorstep, who fed it to Duchene across the crease and he made no mistake
Stat of the Night - Patrick Roy earned his 1st victory as an NHL Head Coach, way to go Patrick! Nathan MacKinnon had 2 assists for his first 2 NHL points in his first NHL game.
Game #2 - The Avs have 1 day off before the Nashville Predators are in town on Friday night (@9PM ET). This will mark the first time that Seth Jones plays vs. Nathan MacKinnon, a storyline that will follow these 2 kids for the rest of their career.
-Joel Forman - Colorado Avalanche News
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