Oilers 3 - 4 Avalanche
Final - OT
  for this game

Avs conclude disappointing season with OT win over Oilers

Apr 10, 2011 - 11:02 PM Denver, CO (Sports Network) - David Jones scored a power-play goal with 1:03 remaining in overtime, and the Colorado Avalanche concluded the regular season with a 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers at Pepsi Center.

Edmonton forward Liam Reddox went off for tripping at the 3:11 mark of the extra frame. Oilers veteran goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin managed to get his glove on Matt Duchene's one-timer from the right side, but Jones pounced on the rebound to allow Colorado captain Adam Foote go out a winner.

Sunday's game was the final one in the NHL for Foote, who announced Friday that he'll retire at the end of the season. The 39-year-old defenseman won a pair of Stanley Cups with the Avalanche in 1996 and 2001. Foote returned to lineup after missing the past 12 games with a fractured ankle.

"I'm just so happy to be able to play in that one," Foote said. "My teammates were so great about it."

Milan Hejduk, Ryan O'Reilly and Philippe Dupuis also scored for the Avalanche (30-44-8), who entered this season with optimism after reaching the playoffs in 2010, one year after finishing at the bottom of the Western Conference.

Colorado, hoping to prove it wasn't a fluke, got off to a solid start and moved atop the Northwest Division during a six-game winning streak in mid- December.

However, a raft of injuries led to a second-half slump that crippled Colorado's chances of returning to the postseason. The Avalanche were 19-10-4 after beating Montreal on December 19, but managed to win only 11 of their remaining 49 games and finished with 68 points, their lowest total since moving from Quebec in 1995.

Only Edmonton (25-45-12) had fewer points in the league with 62.

Teemu Hartikainen, Kurtis Foster and Reddox lit the lamp for the Oilers, who took up residence in the West basement for the second consecutive season.

Hartikainen pumped home a power-play goal 1:26 into the contest, but the Avalanche grabbed the lead later in the first period on goals from O'Reilly and Dupuis that were separated by 50 seconds.

"I think in the first period, we didn't come out the way we wanted," Foster said. "We had an early goal on the power play, which is nice but we weren't helping (Khabibulin) too much. He stood on his head and kept it a 2-1 game."

Foster tied it at 5:08 of the second period on a power play, then Reddox netted his first NHL goal since February 19, 2009 to give Edmonton a 3-2 lead at 12:28.

Hejduk drew the Avalanche even with a power-play tally 30 seconds into the third period.

Game Notes

Colorado goaltender Peter Budaj made 25 saves...Khabibulin stopped 21 shots...Jones and Duchene both had two assists...Foote registered 66 goals and 242 assists in 1,154 career NHL games...Hejduk collected his 400th assist and passed Peter Forsberg for fourth place on the franchise's all-time point list.






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