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Svatos lifts Avalanche past Canucks in shootout

Nov 13, 2008 - 7:52 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- The Colorado Avalanche had a simple theory on facing the recently impenetrable goaltender Roberto Luongo - one has to go in. It actually came to fruition in regulation, but that was not enough.

However, Marek Svatos scored the decisive goal in the third round of the shootout as the Avalanche skated to a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.

"That's what we were hoping for," Svatos said. "That's what our focus was. Just put as many pucks on the net as we can, and eventually one's got to go in. We were hoping (Luongo) was going to give up some rebounds and we can bury it. Both goalies (were) amazing tonight. He's one of the best goalies in the league, so it's always hard to score on him."

Wojtek Wolski also tallied in the bonus format and Peter Budaj made 31 saves for Colorado. Budaj also denied Kyle Wellwood and Taylor Pyatt in the shootout as the Avalanche notched their second consecutive win after losing five straight.

"It's a big win," Budaj said. "The guys persevered, kept working hard, especially against a great goaltender like Luongo, who's playing at the top of his game right now. It's a big win for us."

Paul Stastny scored for Colorado during a man advantage 88 seconds into the third period, snapping Luongo's franchise-record scoreless streak at 242 minutes, 36 seconds in the process.

"It's a tough one to lose," Luongo said. "It was a big game, and unfortunately, we didn't come away with the win there. It was a rough start. Just the first 10 minutes, I think, they were throwing everything at the net, but we were able to keep them off the scoresheet. I thought we started getting it going the second half of the first period."

The 29-year-old goaltender, who entered having recorded three straight shutouts, made 109 saves during his scoreless streak. During the stretch, Luongo increased his career shutout total to 43 - fourth among active goaltenders.

"I don't really care about the streak," Luongo said. "The goal tonight was the two points, and we fell short of that, so that's more disappointing than anything else."

Currently with the San Jose Sharks, Brian Boucher owns the modern-day record for the longest shutout sequence at 332:01, setting the mark in 2003-04 while with the Phoenix Coyotes.

After Budaj turned aside Wellwood's attempt, Wolski deked Luongo to his left and slid a backhander into the vacant net in the first round. Pyatt's backhanded attempt was poked away by Budaj before Milan Hejduk failed to get his wrist shot past on Luongo.

"(Budaj) played really well," Luongo said. "We had some good chances to score and he made some key saves, big-timing saves, especially in the second and in the third."

Alex Burrows evened the shootout on Vancouver's third attempt, but Svatos followed by lifting a hard wrister over the shoulder of Luongo to secure the victory.

"They were good," Colorado coach Tony Granato said. "Obviously, everyone knows about Luongo, but it was nice to see how Peter played. He made some outstanding saves in the penalty kill there in the third period, and obviously in the shootout, he was good as well. It was Vancouver-Colorado. You wouldn't expect much different."

Pyatt gave Vancouver a 1-0 edge by converting a penalty shot 2:43 into the second period. After Colorado defenseman Ruslan Salei broke the left wing's stick with a slash on a breakaway to set up the penalty shot, Pyatt skated in on Budaj and lifted a wrister over the netminder's glove.

Granato was somewhat surprised by the call that led to the penalty shot.

"A little bit," Granato said. "It's hard to tell sometimes what is and what's not. (The referee has) got a split second to make the call, and he certainly had a clear breakaway. He broke the stick. It was a good play by (Salei) at the last second to try and knock his stick.

"He hit his stick, but unfortunately, his stick broke, so I'm sure that's probably what caused the penalty-shot call. It was a good call."

Making his 11th straight start, Luongo made 33 saves. The captain stopped the Avalanche several times in the final minutes of regulation, denying a number of attempts while Colorado was on a two-man advantage with four minutes remaining in the third and turning aside a hard slap shot with one second left by Wolski, who was all alone in the right faceoff circle.

"I don't think we want to be giving up a chance like that at the end of the game," Luongo said. "We were able to get a point, but we can't be satisfied with the performance of one point. We've got to make sure we are hungry for the two points every night, and that's what going to make us successful in the long run."

Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault felt the tying goal in the third served as mental hit to his team.

"I'm thinking maybe the guys were disappointed about (Luongo's) streak being over and it took them a couple of shifts to really focus and get back at it," Vigneault said. "Both teams competed real hard.

"We knew they were going to be real desperate, and they showed it. We had our moments in the game and they had theirs."