Final
Avs halt Red Wings' win streak at seven
Dec 5, 2011 - 3:56 AM Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Ryan O'Reilly scored twice and Gabriel Landeskog had two assists as the Colorado Avalanche took a 4-2 decision over the Detroit Red Wings at Pepsi Center.Paul Stastny and T.J. Galiardi also scored for Colorado, which ended a season- long eight-game homestand with a 5-3 record.
Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves in the Avs' third straight win.
Johan Franzen and Danny Cleary each lit the lamp for the Red Wings, who had their season-high seven-game win streak snapped.
Ty Conklin stopped 31-of-34 shots in defeat.
"We sure did not play very well tonight. We just did not seem to have our legs," said Cleary.
Detroit struck first late in the opening period while on the power play. After Pavel Datsyuk's shot attempt from the right circle was blocked, he gathered the disc and sent it across the ice to Franzen, who wristed it into the open net at the 15:08 mark.
Colorado then struck twice within the first three minutes of the second to take the lead.
The first came just 26 seconds into the frame when Landeskog grabbed a Detroit turnover behind the net and whipped a pass out front to O'Reilly, who lifted a shot under the crossbar.
The go-ahead goal came on the power play at the 2:11 mark. Matt Duchene threw the puck towards the net from the left corner and Conklin initially stopped it with his glove, but then lost track of it as it sat in the goal mouth, allowing Stastny to stuff it into the net for a 2-1 lead.
"It was a total team effort. It really helped our confidence after being down in the first," Landeskog said about the second period. "We realized we couldn't wait until the third period against these guys."
That lead carried into the third period until Henrik Zetterberg flipped a backhander from the right circle that was deflected by Cleary into the short side to knot the game at two with 14:52 left in regulation.
But a little over four minutes later, Landeskog raced down the ice with Galiardi on a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush. Landeskog skated down to the lower left circle before slipping the puck to Galiardi, whose one-timer ripped off the post and into the net to give the Avalanche back the lead.
The Red Wings almost netted the equalizer in the final minute with a flurry in front of the net, but Varlamov kept the puck out and O'Reilly laid the puck into the open net down the other side to seal the victory.
Game Notes
Detroit center Valtteri Filppula left the game in the first period with a lower body injury and did not return...Franzen has 11 goals in his last 10 games against Colorado...Detroit fell to 6-6-0 on the road this season...Landeskog recorded two assists in a game for the first time in his career.
- DETROIT: 2
COLORADO: 4
Final
Dec 4 10:27 PM - DETROIT: 1
COLORADO: 2
End of 2nd
Dec 4 9:34 PM - Colorado Power-Play Goal - Paul Stastny (8), at 2:11.
Red Wings 1, Avalanche 2 2nd - 17:49Dec 4 8:59 PM - Colorado Goal - Ryan O'Reilly (5), from Gabriel Landeskog at :26.
Red Wings 1, Avalanche 1 2nd - 19:34Dec 4 8:56 PM - DETROIT: 1
COLORADO: 0
End of 1st
Dec 4 8:39 PM - Detroit Power-Play Goal - Johan Franzen (12), at 15:08.
Red Wings 1, Avalanche 0 1st - 4:52Dec 4 8:29 PM - DETROIT: 0
COLORADO: 0
1st Period - 20:00
Dec 4 8:09 PM
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