Varly’s fingerprints on victory
AVALANCHE 3, RED WINGS 2, SO
DETROIT » Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov stole two points Friday night.
“I’m not sure about that,” Varlamov protested in the Avalanche locker room after Colorado’s 3- 2 shootout victory over the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena. “It’s a team game. The goalie cannot win by himself. I had support from my teammates.” Naw, Varlamov stole two points. The Red Wings outshot the Avalanche 4521 in the 65 minutes of regulation and overtime, but it was 2- 2 after neither team scored in the OT— including when the Avalanche had a 4- on- 3 power play for the final 92 seconds.
Then in a four- round shootout, Nathan MacKinnon and Blake Comeau— who had one of the Colorado goals in regulation — beat Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek, while
Pavel Datsyuk was the only Detroit shooter to score on Varlamov.
MacKinnon’s goal, on the Avalanche’s third attempt, was necessary to keep the shootout going to a fourth round, and then Varlamov made a save on Gustav Nyquist before Comeau’s successful shot ended the game.
“Actually, Patty told me what to do, believe it or not,” MacKinnon said of Avs coach Patrick Roy. “He told me to come down with speed, pump fake and go backhand, top shelf. So that’s what I did. And it worked. It’s all him.”
Said Comeau: “I just watched the other three guys go and I felt like on the fakes, he wasn’t biting too hard, besides on Nate’s. So I tried to come in and snap one, high glove, and I was happy to see it go in. ... We sneaked away with two points. That wasn’t our best effort. This time of year, with important points on the line, the most important thing was that we found a way to get the two points.”
Matt Duchene scored the other regulation goal for Colorado, giving the Avs a 1- 0 lead at 9: 27 of the first period off a pass from Mikhail Grigorenko.
After Jonathan Ericsson’s bouncer through traffic got under Varlamov to tie it 1- 1 at 4: 09 of the second period, Comeau’s ninth of the season put Colorado up 2- 1 early in the third. But Datsyuk’s power- play goal made it 2- 2 midway through the period and that’s how it stayed through overtime, when Varlamov had four saves.
“We needed our goalie to be our best player to have a chance to win,” Roy said. “And he was our best player, by far our best player. ... They dominated us, there’s no doubt about it.”
The win made the Avalanche 2- 0 in shootouts this season, and 9- 3 in its last dozen road games. Also, Colorado is 2- 0 on this road trip after beating Ottawa and Detroit on the heels of a horrible 0- 3- 1 homestand.
Before the road trip, Roy had penciled in Calvin Pickard as the starter against the Red Wings. But Roy wavered on that Friday night following the Avs’ 4- 3 victory in Ottawa, and after checking with Varlamov about howhe felt, Roy chose to play the Russian.
“I felt good after playing last night,” Varlamov said. “I had lots of energy. I feel good.”