Reto Berra made 35 saves for his second career shutout and Nathan MacKinnon scored in the opening minute of Colorado’s victory over Anaheim (0-3-1).
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“Mentally, I was confident and I saw the puck really good”, Berra said. A replay showed that Despres appeared to get hit high by Colorado’s Tyson Barrie in the corner, an unpenalized play that could be reviewed by the league for possible punishment.
– The scoreless streak is now at 163 minutes and four seconds. Colorado’s penalty kill was exemplary, yet the penalties themselves were unnecessary and, at times, questionable. Vancouver’s power play failed in all five of their opportunities …
“The guys played great in front of me”, Berra said.
The Avalanche amassed 41 blocks, 18 of them in the third period, to the Ducks’ 12. “We had to come out with a big performance, and I’m proud of them, because that was an (opponent) that was hungry”.
Meanwhile, the Anaheim Ducks’ season-opening nightmare just keeps getting longer and more unpleasant.
He came into the night with one goal and four assists, including a pointless game in the home-ice loss to Boston on Wednesday, in the first three games.
“I’ve never seen it in my time coaching, and I can’t remember it when I was playing – going four games without a forward scoring”. “But I told the players that you’ve got to hang in there because when it’s the lowest time and then you pull out of it, it’s awesome how you turn things around”. Anaheim finished one game short of the Stanley Cup Final last season. That previous statement still evokes a “living in the past glories” attitude, a problem that is quite possibly the biggest reason for the Ducks losing right now. “Once that happens, it should be a snowball effect”. The Ducks are winless (0-2-1) after an eye-popping 4-0 loss to Arizona on Wednesday that left captain Ryan Getzlaf perplexed.
Anze Kopitar’s overtime goal helped give the Los Angeles Kings their first win of the season as they beat the Minnesota Wild 2-1.
Jones set a Sharks franchise record by going 234:33 without allowing a goal, passing Alex Stalock.
The Ducks responded with 11 shots on goal in the first 10 minutes, to no effect. Ondrej Pavelec made 19 saves. One was stopped by Berra and the other grazed off the left post.
Two games are hardly a good amount of play to determine where the best teams will be when April comes. The Ducks launched 15 shots in the period.
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“It’s something we really haven’t gone through, at least since I’ve been here”, winger Corey Perry said. Skille scored his first goal of the season by powering a slap shot between Andersen’s legs from the left-wing boards near the face-off circle. John Mitchell sealed the Avalanche win with an empty net goal, his fourth goal in as many games.
