On Wednesday night, the Colorado Avalanche suffered their second straight loss in a 1-0 overtime game against the Carolina Hurricanes, but it wasn’t all bad. In fact, there were quite a few positives to be taken away from the Avs’ performance, starting with their defense.
“I really like the way we played defensively,” head coach Patrick Roy said postgame. “If we play like this we’re going to win our fair share of games.”
In what has become a regular occurrence, the Avalanche shut out all five of the Canes’ power play opportunities, and goaltender Semyon Varlamov easily had his best performance of the season, stopping Carolina’s first 18 shots on goal. But that’s not all that surprising. What was surprising was that the Avs finished the night with seven more shots on goal than the Canes, an area where they have consistently struggled over the last three years.
Led by a seemingly rejuvenated Matt Duchene, the Avs kept the pressure on Canes’ goaltender Cam Ward all night, but they just couldn’t get one of their 26 shots on goal to find the back of the net. Ward was simply at his best, as evidenced by his unbelievable stick save in the closing minutes of the third period on this Duchene shot.
“It’s absolutely painful,” Duchene said, via ESPN.com. “I am probably going to have nightmares about that one. I made the move and got it upstairs just in case he was down and he sticks it out and just nicks it enough to go wide. I feel awful right now.”
In the end, the Avalanche will walk away with just a point, but they showed a lot to be happy about on Wednesday. The effort on defense continues to get better, and while they failed to get a goal on the board, the aggression and puck possession were definite positives.
You can check out the rest of Roy’s post-game comments right here, courtesy of Altitude Radio Network:
You can catch the Avs back in action on Saturday night at the Pepsi Center against the Columbus Blue Jackets.