Avalanche 4 - 2 Canucks
Final
  for this game

Colorado takes down Vancouver

Apr 11, 2014 - 5:53 AM Vancouver, BC (SportsNetwork.com) - Tyson Barrie scored the winning goal in the third period and the Colorado Avalanche now sit atop the Central Division thanks to a 4-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks.

The Avalanche now have 111 points, same as St. Louis, which lost to Minnesota on Thursday. However, Colorado has four more wins in regulation or overtime to hold the tiebreaker and both teams have two games to play.

Anaheim leads the Western Conference with 112 points, while Boston is tops in the NHL with 115 points.

Paul Stastny scored twice, John Mitchell had a goal and Semyon Varlamov stopped 38 shots for the Avalanche, who have won eight of their last nine games.

"Our fate is in our hands here," Mitchell said. "We need to have two big games and that will seal it for us."

David Booth and Henrik Sedin scored for the Canucks, who were knocked out of playoff contention on Tuesday in a loss to Anaheim and have dropped five of six. Jacob Markstrom gave up three goals on 27 shots.

"We played well. We played hard. I thought Markstrom looked really good," Vancouver head coach John Tortorella said.

Colorado took a 2-1 lead at 5:21 of the third as crisp passing was finished off by Stastny as he one-timed a rebound into the net from in front.

Vancouver, though, tied the game less than two minutes later when Dan Hamhuis' shot from the left point went wide, but it came back to the left side where Booth found the puck in his feet and snapped it in.

However, Barrie gave his team the lead with 7:30 to play after he picked up the puck in his own zone, skated down the right wing and cut to the front before snapping in a shot for his 13th of the year.

Mitchell sealed the win with an empty-net, power-play goal with 42.2 seconds showing on the clock.

Sedin scored his 11th of the year at 13:52 of the first, while Stastny's first of the game came with 1:21 left in the opening period to send it into the break tied.

Varlamov made six saves in the second period, while Markstrom stopped nine.

Game Notes

Vancouver plays in Edmonton on Saturday ... Colorado plays in San Jose on Friday ... Colorado took two of three from Vancouver this season ... Colorado was 1-for-4 on the power play while Vancouver didn't have a man advantage.






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