O'Reilly On Roll, Avs Hold Off Panthers
The official game recap Florida Panthers vs Colorado Avalanche.Ryan O'Reilly continued his strong offensive play Friday night for the surging Colorado Avalanche.
O'Reilly had a goal and an assist when the Avalanche defeated the Florida Panthers 3-2 at BB&T Center, giving the forward five goals and two assists in the past six games.
Paul Stastny and Jamie McGinn also scored for Colorado, which built a 3-0 lead and won for the sixth time in eight games (6-1-1). Matt Duchene had two assists.
Alex Tanguay, back in the lineup after missing 36 games because of knee and hip injuries, had an assist on Stastny's goal.
Goalie Semyon Varlamov bounced back after being pulled in his previous start by making 34 saves. He had to come up big in the third period when Colorado was outshot 20-6.
Colorado began a three-game road trip that continues Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning and ends Tuesday against the Dallas Stars.
Scottie Upshall scored his 100th NHL goal, and Tom Gilbert had a goal for the Panthers, who saw a two-game winning streak end.
Tim Thomas, making his 10th start in the Panthers' past 11 games, stopped 22 shots. Two of his saves came on breakaways when he denied O'Reilly in the first period and Nathan MacKinnon, the first pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, in the second.
A second matchup between the top two picks in the 2013 draft didn't materialize because a lower-body injury kept Panthers center Aleksander Barkov out of the lineup.
MacKinnon and Barkov played Nov. 16 when Florida won 4-1 at Colorado. The Avalanche won here for the first time in four tries.
The Panthers went 0-for-2 on the power play, extending their franchise-record streak of games without a power-play goal to 12. They've failed on their past 38 power-play attempts, breaking the team record of 37 set in 2010-11.
Varlamov came up big in the third period after Upshall scored at 5:18 to close the gap to 3-1.
O'Reilly opened the scoring 1:34 into the game when he set a career high with his 19th goal of the season. After Duchene skated around the net and his backhand drifted to the front, O'Reilly fired a shot that was deflected and went wide. He picked up the loose puck behind the net and quickly brought it back and put it home before Thomas could get back into position.
Stastny extended the lead to 2-0 at 16:13 after Gabriel Landeskog intercepted a clearing attempt at the half boards. Landeskog fed Stastny, who was standing alone in front of Thomas and spun around before sliding a backhand into the open net.
Colorado extended its record to 20-1-1 when leading after one period.
McGinn padded the lead with seven minutes left in the second period after Thomas got his stick on O'Reilly's pass from behind the net. McGinn outmaneuvered defenseman Erik Gudbranson for the loose puck and put a quick shot past Thomas.
Gilbert made it 3-2 with 1:43 left in the third period with a slap shot from the point.
-- by NHL.com --
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25/01/2014 - 04:30
