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McCormick's goal lifts Avalanche over Canucks

Dec 24, 2007 - 4:50 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Not even the red-hot Roberto Luongo could hinder the Colorado Avalanche's success at the Pepsi Center.

Cody McCormick scored the game-winning goal midway through the third period and Peter Budaj made 21 saves to lead the Avalanche to their fifth consecutive home victory, a 3-1 triumph over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.

Marek Svatos and Andrew Brunette also tallied for Colorado, which has also won five of its last six contests overall. With the score knotted at 1-1, McCormick picked up the loose puck and fired a quick shot from the left faceoff circle over Luongo's right shoulder with 9:10 left in the final session.

"We got the puck in deep and Ben (Guite) got in there really hard," McCormick said. "They really pitched it out there for me and the puck just bounced out. And I put it on net and fortunately it went in."

"I didn't see it. I think it was practically a perfect shot," Luongo said of McCormick's blistering wrist shot. "He shot it right at the corner of the net."

It was McCormick's second tally of the season and eighth of his career.

Brunette doubled the Avalanche's advantage when he took a pass from defenseman John-Michael Liles in front of the goal and made multiple moves before flipping a shot of the glove of Luongo to take a 3-1 edge.

"I think I kind of caught him going the other way," Brunette said. "He doesn't bite too much but I thought I got him down on the one side and there was a little hole there on the other side."

Luongo stopped 29 of the 32 shots he faced on the night, but suffered his first loss since returning from his rib injury. He had yielded just three goals over his three-game winning streak since being sidelined for four contests.

"They have good confidence right now and they're a good team," Luongo said. "Once they got the lead there, it was difficult for us to get it back."

Colorado, which has pulled to a first place tie with Vancouver at the top of the Northwest Division with 44 points, is an impressive 15-3-0 at home this season.

"Obviously with the people that we're missing to be where we are is pretty good," Brunette said. "I don't think we've played great hockey, but we've found ways to win in the last little while. We need these wins, especially at home. We need those wins, everybody in our division and conference are winning games."

The Avalanche opened the scoring when Svatos capitalized on a scramble in front of the net, getting a stick on the puck after it trickled behind Luongo. Luongo was knocked down in the crease and after a lengthy review by the replay official, the goal stood to give Colorado a 1-0 lead at 3:29 of the second period.

Vancouver tied the score at 1-1 on a power play just over three minutes later when Taylor Pyatt received a pass from Byron Ritchie in the slot and netted a backhand shot over Budaj's glove at the 6:57 mark of the middle session.

"We had a lot of chances in the second period," Canucks center Henrik Sedin. "The third was our worst period. We've got to score more, that's the bottom line."