Anaheim Ducks vs Colorado Avalanche
When: 9:00 PM ET, Thursday, January 12, 2017
Where: Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado

TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN Prime Ticket (Anaheim), Altitude2 (Colorado)
PREDICTION: Ducks 4, Avalanche 2

Oddsmakers currently have the ANAHEIM listed as -165-moneyline favorites versus the COLORADO, while the game’s total is sitting at 5.

DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche hope to end their five-day break the same way it started — with a win on home ice.

Those have been rare for Colorado, which ended a 10-game winless streak at Pepsi Center with a 2-1 overtime win against the New York Islanders on Friday. That preceded the team’s five-day hiatus that every NHL team will experience before the end of February.

Now the Avalanche (13-25-1) are back to work and have a tough task ahead when they host the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night. The Ducks are in strong playoff contention and playing like a postseason team. They are coming off a 2-0 win over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday and have won four of their past five games.

Goaltender Josh Gibson got his third shutout of the season and second in four games in the win over the Stars, which preceded a two-game trip that ends in Arizona on Saturday night.

The good news for Anaheim (22-13-8) is it might get back forward Ryan Getzlaf. He has been out since sustaining a lower-body injury against the Philadelphia Flyers on New Year’s Day but tested it before Tuesday’s game. The Ducks decided to hold him out for one more game in the hopes that he will be available against Colorado.

“I feel pretty good,” Getzlaf told The Orange County Register. “For the most part, there’s a couple little things here and there that still have to come along. I don’t know if that’s just tentativeness or if it’s actual pain and those kinds of things. So we’ll see.”

Colorado’s break ended with a 4 p.m. local time practice at its practice facility on Wednesday. It was the first time the public could watch Nathan MacKinnon on the ice after he was named the team’s representative to the NHL All-Star Game. It is his first time being an NHL All-Star.

The honor is a little consolation in a season that has gone south for the Avalanche since they were 9-9-0 in November. Friday’s win was their first at Pepsi Center since beating the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 15, and the frustration was apparent for the players.

“It was a long time coming,” MacKinnon said after the victory over the Islanders. “It’s been tough at home, it’s been tough in general, obviously. Wins haven’t been easy to get, and obviously we have a lot of work to do still, but it definitely feels good to win.”

Anaheim has two All-Star Game representatives — forward Ryan Kesler and defenseman Cam Fowler.

The Ducks are trying something new on this two-game road trip. While it has become vogue for teams to host “dad trips” when players’ fathers join the team on the road, Anaheim is hosting a “siblings trip” to Colorado and Arizona.

The Ducks are accompanied by a group of 14 that includes eight sisters, five brothers and one mother.

“We think it’s an opportunity for their families to experience what the ‘prized one’ in the family is doing for a living,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle told the team website. “I’m sure they’re all excited and hopefully they have a good time and we have some success, where the players take on the motto of win one for my brother or my sister or my mother.”

The post Anaheim vs Colorado Odds & Prediction appeared first on IdealCapper.

Colorado Avalanche vs. Calgary Flames
When: 10:00 PM ET, Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta

TV: 10 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), Sportsnet West (Calgary)
PREDICTION: Flames 4, Avalanche 2

Oddsmakers currently have the Flames listed as 200-moneyline favorites versus the Avalanche, while the game’s total is sitting at 5½.

CALGARY, Alberta — The Calgary Flames have enjoyed considerable success against teams below them in the NHL’s Western Conference standings.

The Flames (20-17-2) want to keep that going when they host the Colorado Avalanche (12-24-1) at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday.

“We have some big divisional games with teams that are chasing us,” Calgary captain Mark Giordano told Flames TV.

After facing the Avalanche, who they beat 6-3 in Denver on Dec. 27, the Flames will face the Canucks (18-18-3) in Vancouver on Friday before a rematch between the same two teams at the Saddledome the next night.

“We know they’re going to be pushing – there’s desperation,” said Giordano, who admitted that the Flames didn’t play their best game at home on New Year’s Eve when they posted a 4-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes. “We’ve got to ramp it up here. It’s all about trying to catch the teams that are ahead of you.

“We feel like we still have a good shot of getting into those top three spots (in the Pacific Division). We’ve got to try and focus on catching those guys. It’s our job not to let anyone else back into it either, so we’ve got to take care of business.”

Teammate Matt Stajan agreed that the Flames can’t look past the Avalanche, who have lost four straight games and nine of their last 10.

“The focus is two points against Colorado and then we know what we have after that,” Stajan said. “There’s never an easy game in the NHL. You’ve got to be ready for every game.

“You’ve got to win a lot of games to get to the playoffs and we know that. We’re in a position right now where we can control our own fate here and if we have a good stretch here, we’ll keep pushing forward.”

The Avalanche will be looking to bounce back from a 3-2 loss they suffered in Vancouver to the Canucks on Monday. Vancouver forward Sven Baertschi, a former Flame, scored the game-winning goal on a power play with 3:37 to play in the third period.

“Some of the penalties we’re taking, it’s getting repetitive, but that’s what’s biting us every night,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said after the game. “We keep repeating the same mistakes and it ends up costing us hockey games. Every mistake we make, it seems like other teams are capitalizing on them. We have to be better, it’s that simple.”

Against the Flames, Colorado will go with goalie Calvin Pickard in net for the sixth straight game. Pickard has started every game since Semyon Varlamov went down with a groin injury and he’s played in 11 of Colorado’s past 13 contests.

“I thought after a couple rough outings and some tough breaks at home that (on Monday) he really settled in and kind of got back to his game,” Bednar said. “Made a lot of big saves for us and kept us in that hockey game and gave us a chance to win.”

Colorado right winger Jarome Iginla, who played a club-record 1,219 games with the Flames from 1996 to 2013, talked to a large throng of reporters in Calgary on Tuesday about returning to his old stomping grounds once again.

“Lots of great memories, and I think it always will be (special),” said Iginla, who also leads the Flames in all-time points (1,095) and goals (525). “Not as strange each time. First it is quite an adjustment, and (I’m) more comfortable with each time. But always fun to come back, for sure.”

The post Colorado vs. Calgary Odds & Prediction appeared first on IdealCapper.

Colorado Avalanche vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
When: 7:00 PM ET, Sunday, December 11, 2016
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario

TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), Sportsnet (Toronto)
PREDICTION: Maple Leafs 4, Avalanche 2

TORONTO — The Colorado Avalanche can only improve after they lost 10-1 Saturday night to the Montreal Canadiens.

They will not have long to linger on the humiliation. They play the Toronto Maple Leafs Sunday night at the Air Canada Centre.

The Maple Leafs come home on a high after defeating the Bruins in Boston 4-1 on Saturday night.

It was only the third win on the road this season (3-6-5) for the Maple Leafs. They also ended a three-game losing streak.

“I never thought much about that, it was just winning the game and we feel we’ve been getting better,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said about improving on the road. “The last three games the first period kind of did us in, we didn’t start on time and it was nice to see that we started, we were able to hold on. It wasn’t the start we wanted but we didn’t give up the goals, not because we had any, but because the guys battled. And then we were able to execute a little bit.”

The Avalanche were down 5-0 only 8:41 into the game in Montreal.

“Tough to describe,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I’m going to take the blame for that one because we weren’t prepared to start the game. They’re the best team in the league with the best record at home and we’re all the way down in the standings and we weren’t prepared to play. So that one’s on me. … If you have one or two players who don’t show up, then that’s on them. When you don’t have the whole team show up, then that’s on me.”

The Avalanche (10-15-1) are 1-2-0 on a four-game road trip that ends Sunday in Toronto. They are 1-6-1 in their past eight games. Colorado defeated the Bruins on Thursday.

Colorado’s starting goaltender Calvin Pickard three goals on 10 shots Saturday before being replaced by Semyon Varlamov, who allowed six goals on 16 shots through the end of the second period.

“If you look at the mistakes we made the way we were playing, it was inevitable,” Bednar said. “We pulled Pick to maybe try to spark our team. That didn’t work. So we put him back in. He had a good third.”

The Maple Leafs, meanwhile, had good goaltending again Saturday from Frederik Anderson.

“Our first period, we didn’t do anything,” Babcock said. “We didn’t win any battles, we didn’t skate. I thought we were way better in the second — we skated and had much more of the play. In the third period obviously it was great to get the win. (Andersen) played real well, especially early in the game, for us. He gave them the one there at the end of the second but was able to battle hard in the third.”

The Maple Leafs (11-10-5), who were outshot 33-20, escaped the first period with a 0-0 tie and outscored the Bruins 2-1 in the second period.

“Freddy made some big saves in the first to keep it a game and we kind of picked up our game as the game went on,” said James van Riemsdyk ,who scored his 12th goal of the season. “I thought the third period was our best period. I think we moved the puck around and tried to make plays towards the net and get them compressed towards the net to get those second chances.”

The post Colorado vs. Toronto Odds & Prediction appeared first on IdealCapper.

Colorado Avalanche vs. Boston Bruin
When: 7:00 PM ET, Thursday, December 8, 2016
Where: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), NESN (Boston)
PREDICTION: Bruins 4, Avalanche 3

BOSTON — One streak will end when the slumping Colorado Avalanche visit the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.

The Avalanche are 0-5-1 in their past six games, but the franchise last lost in Boston in 1988 when it was still the Quebec Nordiques. That is a 10-game streak that would end if the Avalanche’s current troubles continue.

Colorado, dead last in the NHL with only 19 points, spent the day in Boston on Wednesday, getting in a practice while the Bruins were playing in Washington.

The workout took place, but four players were back at the team hotel because of illness, including captain Gabriel Landeskog, who was supposed to return from a nine-game absence caused by a lower body injury but was suddenly deemed doubtful for the second game of a four-game trip.

The Avalanche, who fell to 9-14-1 with a 4-3 loss in Nashville on Tuesday night, will get defenseman Fedor Tyutin back from a two-game absence caused by a lower body injury. If Landeskog doesn’t play Thursday, he should return in Montreal on Saturday.

“I don’t know what that (illness) does for Landeskog,” coach Jared Bednar said. “I’m assuming now after feeling sick and not getting that contact practice in (Wednesday) that he’ll be another game, and we’ll have to feel that situation out (Thursday) morning.”

Colorado defenseman Francois Beauchemin also missed the practice, nursing a sore hand.

Bednar thought his team played better in Nashville, but the result was the same despite two goals by Matt Duchene, his eighth and ninth of the season, all on the road.

While the Avalanche come into the game on a losing streak, the Bruins are 3-0-1 in their past four. They came all the way back from three goals down before losing in Washington on Wednesday as goaltender Tuukka Rask fell to 0-5-4 against the Caps.

After digging the huge hole, the Bruins dominated the game, at one point holding Washington without a shot on goal for some 26 minutes. However, a faulty line change in the OT led to Nicklas Backstrom’s winner.

“Just goes to show that you’ve got to trust the system, stick with it, and good things will happen,” Rask said after the game.

Said coach Claude Julien: “I think it was a real good effort by our hockey team tonight. Probably at the end you think you deserve better, but against a team like that, you take the point and move on because we’ve got a game (Thursday) night and I think it’s important for us to get out of here and start focusing on (Thursday).”

With Rask playing Wednesday — and keeping his team in the game when the Caps took a 2-0 lead — it is likely backup Anton Khudobin will be in goal Thursday night. Khudobin won his last start, Dec. 1 against the Carolina Panthers in overtime — the first win of the season for a Boston goalie other than Rask.

Khudobin is 1-3 on the season, and he is 1-1 in two career starts against the Avalanche.

Calvin Pickard, who has never faced the Bruins, will bring a 7-4-2 record, a 2.44 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage into the game, shining numbers next to Semyon Varlamov’s 5-12-0 with a 3.08 GAA.

The Avalanche tied the game at Nashville three times before losing on a five-on-three, power-play goal.

“For me, that was the hardest we played — that was the best game we played in a couple weeks,” Bednar said. “We had some chances to square that game up, and it was a tough way to fall behind on the five-on-three.”

The post Colorado vs. Boston Odds & Prediction appeared first on IdealCapper.

The talented teenager could possibly return to the ice this season if the Avs make the playoffs. Colorado is currently outside of the Western Conference postseason picture.

No further details were provided by the team.

MacKinnon has 14 goals and 24 assists in his sophomore season. He had 63 points a year ago when he was the rookie of the year.

It’s been a tumultuous past few days for the 19-year-old MacKinnon. He broke his nose against Minnesota last Saturday, forcing him to wear a longer shield in a win over Pittsburgh on Wednesday. He scored a goal with his skate in that contest.

The post Avalanche’s MacKinnon out 6-to-8 weeks with broken foot appeared first on IdealCapper.

This isn’t the same Columbus Blue Jackets squad, one that in the past might have let this game slip away.

This is a more determined Blue Jackets team, one that’s focused on finding a way to get into the playoffs.

And this was definitely a good start.

Umberger tied the game late in the final period and Nick Foligno scored at 4:31 of overtime, helping the Blue Jackets beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Monday night for their fourth straight win.

Blake Comeau and Mark Letestu also added goals as the Blue Jackets remained in the thick of a tightly packed playoff chase. They pulled even in points (47) with Detroit for the final playoff spot.

“No one got down,” Umberger said. “This bench, this bench was saying, ‘Let’s go after them. Let’s get them.’ This group, we’re fighting to the end and everybody knew we were going to win this game.”

First, though, Sergei Bobrovsky had to save the game. With the Avalanche short-handed to start the extra period, Gabriel Landeskog broke free and it looked as if he might put an end to things. After all, Landeskog is one of the leaders in the league in short-handed goals this season.

But Bobrovsky made a magnificent save, robbing Landeskog of a goal.

Then, with just 28.7 seconds remaining in OT, Foligno skated in on the right side of Jean-Sebastien Giguere and sent a wrist shot by the veteran goaltender.

That was a departure for Foligno, who’s usually looking to pass in that situation and not shoot.

In this case, being selfish paid dividends.

“I just figured I’d shoot (through Giguere’s pads) and catch him before he went down and luckily it was able to sneak through,” Foligno said. “It was huge.”

Indeed.

Maybe even save-the-season huge, especially with only five games remaining.

“We’re finding ways,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “That’s what you have to do this time of year. Tough environment, tough team to play against with really nothing to lose — a big two points for our team.”

Cody McLeod scored twice and Jamie McGinn added another for the Avalanche, who are last in the Western Conference.

McGinn gave the Avs a lead with just over two minutes remaining in regulation on a power play, but it didn’t hold as Umberger answered just 35 seconds later.

Lately, Colorado hasn’t been playing as if it’s a last-place team. Giguere woke his teammates out of their funk when he criticized them for being more concerned about postseason plans in Las Vegas than their play on the ice.

That seemed to do the trick. Colorado is 2-0-2 following Giguere’s outburst.

There also was a dose of motivation for the Avs, too. The Blue Jackets beat Colorado twice down the stretch last season, all but ending the team’s late playoff bid.

This time, the Avs were trying to step into the role of spoilers.

Didn’t quite work out.

“This is playoff-type hockey,” Giguere said. “More often than not, if we play like this, we’ll get some wins.”

McLeod had his first two-goal game since Oct. 17, 2009, at Detroit. The small number of fans who braved a spring snow storm roaring through the Mile High City let out a thunderous cheer.

“For most of the game we battled hard, we get a huge goal with two minutes left in the game and then we give up a breakaway. We can’t do that,” McLeod said. “That’s the kind of thing we’ve been doing all year and it’s tough.”

This was precisely the kind of win the Blue Jackets’ needed.

“Huge character,” Foligno said. “You saw Blake’s goal, it was a big one, and Umby scored a huge one to get us into overtime. That seems to be the morale on this team. There’s no quit on this team and that’s what’s going to allow us, hopefully, to get into the playoffs.”

Game notes

Colorado coach Joe Sacco will lead the U.S. squad at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in May. The tournament will be held in Helsinki, Finland, and Stockholm, Sweden. … Colorado reassigned G Sami Aittokallio to Lake Erie of the American Hockey League before the game. … Avs prospect Gus Young helped Yale to a win over Quinnipiac on Saturday in the NCAA championship game. Young, a seventh-round pick in 2009, is a defenseman and was on the ice for all four goals. … Blue Jackets D Adrian Aucoin (lower body) left the game in the second period. The Blue Jackets say he’s day to day. … A moment of silence was held before the national anthem for the victims of the bombings at the Boston Marathon earlier Monday.

The post Blue Jackets continue playoff push with OT win over Avs appeared first on IdealCapper.

“I don’t want to say no, but we’ll see [Monday],” Quenneville said of the two players after Saturday’s practice at Johnny’s IceHouse West.

More On The Blackhawks

For all the latest on the Blackhawks, check out Scott Powers’ blog on ESPNChicago.com. Blog

Forward Viktor Stalberg missed practice Saturday, but he is likely to play on Sunday, according to Quenneville. Stalberg was struck in the face by a puck in the third period of Friday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks and did not return.

Hossa has missed four games since suffering an unspecified upper-body injury against the Colorado Avalanche on March 18. He has 13 goals and 10 assists in 28 games this season.

Sharp has missed nine games since suffering an unspecified upper-body injury, also against the Avalanche, on March 6. He has five goals and 13 assists in 24 games this season.

Hossa and Sharp participated in their first full practice on Saturday. They weren’t allowed contact previously.

“It’s another step in returning,” Sharp said. “I felt fine doing the contact stuff. I’m sure there will be more of that in the next few days and hopefully come back soon.”

Sharp said he was close to returning, but it was important to be completely healthy when he plays again.

“It’s still not 100 percent,” Sharp said. “I think the idea is to come back and have the injury completely behind you not only mentally, but physically more than anything. Just to know I can take hits to the upper body and be fine, so you don’t have to keep tweaking it and addressing it all through playoffs and end of the season.”

Hossa also said he had to be patient in his return despite his desire to be out on the ice helping the team.

“Obviously when the team loses, you feel like you [could] try to help,” Hossa said. “But like I said, you don’t want to rush things with this type of injury because you can get hurt again, and you’ll be more out than you wanted to be.”

The Blackhawks have gone 4-5 without Sharp and 2-3 without Hossa this season. The Blackhawks are 20-0-3 with both players in the lineup this season.

The post Chicago Blackhawks’ Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp out Sunday but questionable for game vs. Nashville Predators appeared first on IdealCapper.

Known more for his shot, the Minnesota Wild forward clanged a pair of line drives off the goal post, only to have the puck carom straight to teammates and result in two assists for Heatley.

That’s just how things have been going of late for the Wild, who scored a season-high four goals in the first period to beat the slumping Colorado Avalanche 6-4 on Saturday.

Even shots slightly off the mark eventually find their mark.

“I’ll take it,” Heatley said. “We have four lines rolling right now.”

The Wild sure do, with 11 players earning at least a point in this game. Devin Setoguchi led the way with two goals along with adding the 100th assist of his NHL career.

“Anytime you can get that, it’s fun,” Setoguchi said. “More importantly, I got my 100th and we got the win.”

Ryan Suter started a four-goal scoring spree in the first period to help the Wild win for the fourth time in five games. Cal Clutterbuck, Kyle Brodziak and Pierre-Marc Bouchard also added goals.

This was the second half of a home-and-home between the two teams, with Minnesota winning 5-3 on Thursday night.

John Mitchell, P.A. Parenteau, Gabriel Landeskog and Chuck Kobasew had goals for an Avalanche team that has dropped three in a row. Jean-Sebastien Giguere was roughed up in his first home start of the season, allowing four goals on 14 shots before giving way to Semyon Varlamov at the start of the second period.

Niklas Backstrom was solid in net, stopping 28 shots to move to 23-5-3 lifetime against the Avalanche.

Setoguchi all but wrapped up the win with his second goal midway through the third period when he slipped a shot through the pads of Varlamov. It was Setoguchi’s first two-goal game of the season.

“We’ve got such a big, strong team that can skate,” Setoguchi said. “It’s tough to defend.”

Kobasew scored with 1:53 remaining to make it a two-goal game, and the Avalanche pulled Varlamov but couldn’t take advantage of the extra skater.

Colorado worked its way back into the contest in the second period with goals from Parenteau and Landeskog. But the Avalanche made a costly mistake in their zone, when Landeskog tried to send a pass across the middle. Bouchard intercepted the puck and backhanded a shot by Varlamov to make it 5-3.

Landeskog lamented his poor choice after the game.

“Any team is going to capitalize on those chances,” the Avalanche captain said. “It’s deflating, especially because we battled back so hard and got back to 4-3 and then I throw that puck away. It’s frustrating.”

Time is slipping away for the Avalanche as they tumble farther and farther in the standings.

“We’ve got to figure it out here and start to work together,” said Duchene, who had two assists, giving him 10 points in his last five games. “It’s not effort and it’s not talent. We’ve got both of those. I think it’s just concentration. Everyone is so scared to make mistakes.”

The first period featured two fights, three roughing calls and two Wild goals before fans even had a chance to settle into their seats. Suter got Minnesota started on the right note with a shot over Giguere’s left shoulder.

Soon after, Setoguchi scored on a similar shot on a screened Giguere. Clutterbuck and Brodziak also added goals on “passes” from Heatley.

The four goals in the opening 20 minutes brought the day to an end for Giguere. He sat on the bench as Varlamov took his spot in goal.

Minnesota was without forward Jason Zucker for a second straight game. The rookie has what the team is calling an upper-body injury after a violent blindside collision with Corey Perry that brought the Anaheim right winger a four-game suspension.

Zucker is on the trip with the Wild and possibly could play Monday night in Vancouver against the Canucks, a team the Wild are chasing in the Northwest Division race.

“That’s our biggest challenge now,” Clutterbuck said. “I don’t think we expect to score four goals in the first period every game but we expect to play the same way every game.”

Game notes

Wild D Brett Clark was a scratch for a second straight game after being signed for the rest of the season on Thursday. Clark played five-plus seasons for Colorado. … Avs D Ryan Wilson (ankle) was a scratch. … Colorado dropped to 2-1 in day games this season. … Avs F Milan Hejduk was a scratch after returning to the lineup Thursday at Minnesota, his first game back after sitting out five straight with a torso injury.

The post Devin Setoguchi’s pair leads Wild’s outburst vs. Avs appeared first on IdealCapper.

Sharp was injured when the Colorado Avalanche’s Ryan O’Byrne hit him against the boards on Wednesday. He had to be helped off to the dressing room after suffering what appeared to be a shoulder injury.

The Hawks take on the Avalanche in Denver on Friday as they try to extend their NHL-record streak of consecutive games to start a season with at least one point to 25.

Marian Hossa, who missed Wednesday’s game, said he’s fine and missing the game had nothing to do with an injury, according to the Hawks’ Twitter account.

Andrew Shaw also will play Friday after taking an elbow to the chin from Paul Stastny on Wednesday, the Hawks tweeted.

The post Patrick Sharp to miss 3-4 weeks appeared first on IdealCapper.

Given the way he’s playing, the backup is making a strong case for even more playing time.

Fasth stopped 31 shots for his first NHL shutout, and Francois Beauchemin scored in his 500th career game, lifting the surging Anaheim Ducks to a 3-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.

In just a short time — four starts, to be exact — Fasth has earned the trust of his teammates and his coach.

“He’s giving me confidence that I never knew I’d have in him when he came over,” said Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau, whose team won its fourth straight game. “It’s a great, pleasant surprise that Viktor has come over and played so well.”

Fasth, 30, certainly has been quite a find for the Ducks since he signed as a free agent during the offseason. According to the Ducks, Fasth is the first goaltender in NHL history over the age of 30 to win his first four games.

Fasth stymied the struggling Avalanche with one sprawling save after another to help Anaheim start a six-game road swing on a good note.

“Vik’s really on the puck, making it easy on us,” Beauchemin said. “If it wasn’t for him, there was no way we would’ve won that game.”

The Avalanche players were in a sour mood after the game, as they were shut out for a third time this season. That especially didn’t sit too well with Matt Duchene.

“We’ve got to find a way to score, bottom line,” Duchene said. “We’ve been shut out three times in 10 games; it’s unacceptable. It’s almost 50 percent of the games we’re getting shut out. It’s a joke.”

No one is laughing about Fasth’s fast start. In his first four NHL appearances, he’s stopped 101 of 105 shots. But the ever-humble Fasth shrugged off his recent play, even his first shutout.

“It’s nothing you go and think about. You just try to do your best and help the team out as much as you can,” Fasth said. “I’m really glad I had (the shutout). It’s a little bonus. Most important thing is we got the win and started off this road trip really good.”

The competition between Fasth and starter Jonas Hiller is heating up. Not that Boudreau views it quite that way.

“Hilly will be playing very soon,” Boudreau said. “He will be doing the same thing, I hope.”

Fasth’s best save against Colorado was when Milan Hejduk skated in late in the final period and lined a shot that Fasth gobbled up with his chest.

That was the type of night it was for Fasth, who was the Swedish Elite League’s goaltender of the year the previous two seasons.

“Tonight, he stole us a victory,” Boudreau said.

Sheldon Souray and Saku Koivu each added a goal and an assist for the Ducks.

Kyle Palmieri nearly added a goal early in the third period on a 2-on-1 breakaway, but Semyon Varlamov slid over, stuck out of his glove and trapped the puck against the post. The referees took a quick look on replay before upholding the ruling of no goal.

Beauchemin all but wrapped up this game with a goal in the second period that gave the Ducks a commanding 3-0 lead. The play was set up by Koivu, who took a bone-jarring hit along the boards to send the puck into the offensive zone, where Daniel Winnik corralled the puck and sent it over to Beauchemin for his second goal of the season.

The Avalanche had David Jones back in the lineup after he missed the previous two games with a knee injury. But it didn’t ignite the offense as Colorado lost for a second straight time at home.

Boudreau had a chance to catch up with Varlamov, his former goalie, in a Pepsi Center hallway at the morning skate. The two were together while with Washington.

Asked the biggest difference between Varlamov then and now, Boudreau said, “He’s way more consistent. From when I watch, there are no soft goals.”

And then Varlamov proceeded to surrender two soft ones in the first period. He let a liner from Souray near the blue line slip between his pads.

Later, Varlamov failed to bat away a pass through the goal crease, allowing Koivu to tap it in with the Ducks on a 5-on-3 advantage. It was the first goal the Avs allowed in 21 power-play chances at Pepsi Center this season.

“If you look at the overall game, they didn’t outplay us,” Colorado coach Joe Sacco said. “At the end it got a little helter-skelter. We had some chance, we didn’t score. We’ve got to stick with it and keep grinding it out.”

Game notes

Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog (head and leg) missed a sixth straight game. … The injury-riddled Avalanche claimed F Aaron Palushaj off waivers from Montreal. He didn’t play Wednesday. … Ducks D Toni Lydman (flu) was a scratch. The team recalled D Jordan Hendry from Norfolk.

The post Viktor Fasth gets first NHL shutout as Ducks rout Avalanche appeared first on IdealCapper.