In the second game of a home-and-home series, the avs were able to exact revenge on the Blackhawks thanks largely to rookie Gabriel Landeskog. The young swede forward notched his first two-goal game of his career, including the tying goal with under 2 minutes left. The avs played a dominating game for two periods (despite being destroyed 31 to 13 in the faceoff dot), and a late pp goal by Jonathan Toews seemed to swing things in the favour of Chicago. Going into the 3rd up 3-2, the avs solved their faceoff issues (going 14-4 the rest of the way) but really couldn't get much else going and found themselves tied and then down 4-3 after goals by Mayers (awful bounce) and Hossa. With just under two minutes to play, Landeskog made a brilliant breakout pass and hurried down the ice, where O'Reilly found him streaking alone on the right side as he came in on Crawford and beat him glove side. Going into OT the avs were shorthanded, but after a strong penalty kill things quickly shifted back in their favour as Crawford made 2 great saves on O'Reilly and Hejduk before OT ended. The avs remained a perfect 3-0 in the shootout this season, as both Hejduk and Dutchy missed for the first time, but all of Stahlberg, Toews and Kane couldn't beat Varlamov and Joakim Lindstrom finished it off with a filthy forehand-backhand-forehand move that froze Crawford. While the game was up and down for the avs, they were able to fight back late and finish it in the shootout to remain a perfect 6-0 on the road this season. Despite letting in 4 goals, Semyon Varlamov played spectacular again. Frolik's goal was an awful giveaway by Erik Johnson, Toew's goal he had no chance on the rebound and Mayers goal deflected off both of Ryan O'Byrne's skates before going in. The avs netminder has been tested frequently this season, but really has become comfortable with his defence out there and is certainly proving a lot of people wrong so far. The one thing I certainly didn't like about this game was Sacco's choice of putting Duchene on the 4th line. While Duchene didn't have his best game the other night, and Coach Sacco wanted to send him a message, I believe this wasn't the right call and by the 3rd period he found himself moving Duchene back up. While Duchene is young and certainly deserves learning situations like that, he is the avs best player and needs to play with the proper wingers and proper minutes in order to fully utilize his skill. Not the prettiest game, but the Avs will certainly take the 2 pts and remain top of the Western Conference (and division) at 12 points.
Avalanche Three Stars:
3. Semyon Varlamov - It is really hard to keep him off the three stars so far this season, despite letting in 4 goals he made some crucial saves and was especially strong on the PK in overtime. I, along with tons of other avs fans, have been flat out impressed by his play early on and I believe he is capable of carrying this team all season long
2. Paul Stastny - Despite a slow start to the season, Stastny has become hot of late and has points in 4 of his last 5 including a goal and assist tonight. He made a beautiful deflection on the Kyle Quincey shot to notch his second of the season, and I really believe that he has stepped his game up recently, which is what Coach Sacco needs out of his assistant captain.
1. Gabriel Landeskog - I can't say enough good things about this kid's game, he hustles, finishes his check, but most importantly thrives in the crunch time that you wouldn't expect an 18-year old to not only be in but excel in. This is his 2nd game tying goal late in the game, and he notched his first ever multi-goal game of his career. I know it's early still, but Gabriel has played simply oustanding and has formed some serious chemistry with O'Reilly and Winnik to form the avs most effective line by far. Coach Sacco continues to rely on him in every situation, and we are really seeing the reasons why the avs took him at #2 this summer. What an impressive game from him tonight
Misplay of the Game - Two terrible plays get the tie tonight, first with Erik Johnson's brutal giveaway on the first Chicago goal and Ryan O'Byrne's double skate deflection that tied it up for Chicago and really changed the momentum
Play of the Game - There are two tonight, Joakim Lindstrom's game winning goal in the shootout was simply nasty, as he has tremendous hands and really knows how to score. However, if it weren't for Landeskog the avs wouldn't have a chance to win and his second goal was a flat out beauty as O'Reilly sent him alone on Crawford as he roofed it to tie the game at 4
Game #9 - The avs head to Calgary for a divison matchup with the Flames Wednesday night(@10pm), as they look to keep their perfect road record alive.
-Joel Forman - Colorado Avalanche News
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