Eurolanche

Avs Stuns Ducks To Stop Road Slide

Jean-Sebastien Giguere had a little something to say about the Anaheim Ducks clinching a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In their first game since Giguere heavily criticized his teammates and questioned their commitment, the Colorado Avalanche jumped all over a heavy-legged Ducks team for a 4-1 victory Wednesday night.

Giguere, who led the Ducks to the Cup in 2007, made 21 saves and the Avalanche got a shorthanded goal from captain Gabriel Landeskog in a morale-boosting triumph -- their third road win and first since Feb. 14. Colorado was 1-8-1 with 15 goals scored in its previous 10 games.

Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf returned from a leg injury and looked quite rusty. Cam Fowler left the game with an upper-body and did not return. The only positive note for the Ducks, who needed one point to clinch a playoff berth, was Teemu Selanne's 674th career goal, to finish a beautiful end-to-end passing sequence in the second period.

Giguere called out his team after a loss Monday, saying "It's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed to be here right now." Apparently they listened.

Colorado took a 4-1 lead into the third, partly because of some rough going by Getzlaf and Luca Sbisa.

Sbisa took a bad interference penalty and Matt Duchene finished off some nice puck movement with a one-timer at 7:54 of the second period, just before the penalty expired, to make it 3-0. Sbisa later tried to clear the puck to the boards but it deflected off a defender's stick and Jamie McGinn rifled a water-bottle wrist shot high past Jonas Hiller at 17:30.

Getzlaf went 0 for 5 in the faceoff circle in the first period and was beaten shorthanded in the second by Landeskog when Colorado's captain drove down the left wing and cut across for a backhand past Hiller to make it 2-0. Landeskog's eighth goal ended a seven-game scoring drought.

The return of Getzlaf allowed the Ducks to have Matthew Lombardi center the second line and reunite the shutdown trio of Daniel Winnik, Saku Koivu and Andrew Cogliano. But the Koivu line was on the ice for Colorado's first goal as Anaheim was asleep at the start. John Mitchell was all by himself on the left side of the net to whack in Duchene's rebound 64 seconds into the game for his 10th of the season but first in 12 games.

-- by Nhl.com --