Eurolanche

Avalanche Tops Coyotes In Shootout

Matt Duchene had three assists and joined PA Parenteau with goals in the shootout as the Colorado Avalanche outlasted the Phoenix Coyotes for a 5-4 victory on Friday night in a battle of non-playoff teams.

Colorado's Stefan Elliott, Parenteau and Patrick Bordeleau wiped out an early 2-0 deficit with goals 4:07 apart in the first period as the Avalanche won only their fourth road game all season (4-16-4). Ryan O'Reilly snapped a 3-3 tie with a power-play goal in the final minute of the second period for Colorado, but the Avalanche couldn't hold the lead.

Antoine Vermette scored twice for Phoenix; he scored his second of the night 5:56 into the third period to even the game at 4-4. David Schlemko and Rob Klinkhammer also scored for the Coyotes, who finished 14-8-2 on home ice this season but couldn't collect enough road points to reach the postseason.

Keith Yandle added three assists for Phoenix as the two teams gave 16,011 fans an entertaining show in the Coyotes' home finale. Phoenix outshot Colorado 6-1 in overtime but Semyon Varlamov, who took over for the injured Jean-Sebastian Giguere with four minutes left in regulation, stopped them all. Giguere made 27 saves before suffering an apparent lower body injury.

Mike Smith and the Coyotes shut out Colorado 4-0 here on April 6 and looked like they were on their way again Friday with two quick goals on their first four shots against Giguere.

Schlemko walked a Kyle Chipchura pass around Parenteau and into the slot before taking advantage of a Paul Bissonnette screen to whip a wrist shot past Giguere at 3:17. It was Schlemko's first goal in 72 games, dating back to Oct. 13, 2011 in Nashville.

Phoenix made it 2-0 at 8:45 with a nifty transition goal. Smith made a big save on John Mitchell and the puck popped into air before Yandle corralled it and headed the other way. He dropped the puck for Vermette in the slot, and Vermette's shot through traffic beat Giguere between the pads to give the Coyotes a full head of steam.

But the Avalanche owned the rest of the period, scoring three times to flip the game.

With the team skating 4-on-4, Elliott jumped into the play and put a Duchene feed off the crossbar and in for his first goal of the season to start the run. Just 1:07 later, Parenteau took advantage of a Schlemko hooking penalty to surprise Smith with a shot aided by a Cody McLeod screen to tie the game.

Exactly one minute later Duchene and Bordeleau pounced on a Tomas Vincour rebound in the crease and kept whacking away until Bordeleau nudged the puck past Smith at 17:52 to give Colorado their first lead of the game.

The Coyotes came out harder in the second but couldn't get the game even until getting some luck on the power play. With Bordeleau in the box for slashing, Klinkhammer fired a puck from the left corner that hit Colorado's Greg Zanon – who had his back turned – and deflected into the net at 15:11. It was the fifth goal and 11th point in 20 games for Klinkhammer after earning a promotion to the NHL.

O'Reilly gave the Avs the lead again when he walked off the half boards and blew a shot past Smith with 34 seconds left in the period to make it 4-3. But Vermette tied the game for a third time on the second of three Phoenix power plays in the first eight minutes of the third period, gobbling up the rebound of a Michael Stone and pumping it past Giguere for his 12th goal of the season.

Colorado had a golden chance to win in regulation when Rostislav Klesla was called for boarding Peter Stastny with 3:28 remaining. But Tyson Barrie hit the post on the power play with 2:10 left and Smith made a big save on Mitchell to force overtime.

-- by Nhl. com --