Savard scored late game winning goal
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Columbus Blue Jackets.Defenseman David Savard scored with 1:01 remaining in the third period to give the Columbus Blue Jackets a 4-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center on Sunday.
Savard, whose giveaway in the first 30 seconds of the game resulted in an Avalanche goal, took a shot from the blue line that eluded goalie Semyon Varlamov to the stick side. It was the Blue Jackets' fourth shot of the period.
Columbus (17-17-3) has split the first two games of a four-game road trip.
The Avalanche (15-16-8) had won two games in a row.
Brandon Dubinsky, who missed the first 26 games to recover from an abdominal injury, gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead at 1:37 of the second period with his second goal of the game. Matt Calvert dumped the puck in the left corner and it bounced off a referee's skate to Dubinsky in the slot, who shot it low to the far side past Varlamov.
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog scored his first goal in 15 games at 5:25 to tie the game 2-2. Landeskog moved by Savard along the left boards and powered his way to the net. He cut inside defenseman Jack Johnson and slid the puck by goalie Curtis McElhinney's left skate.
Colorado's Alex Tanguay had a breakaway shortly after, but McElhinney got a piece of his shot and the puck glanced off the crossbar.
The Blue Jackets answered at 7:50 to take a 3-2 lead. Scott Hartnell passed to a wide-open Ryan Johansen in the slot for his 12th goal. Johansen has three goals and four assists in a seven-game point streak.
The Avalanche tied the game 3-3 at 15:30 on a wraparound by Cody McLeod, who banked the puck into the net off McElhinney's left shoulder.
Colorado outshot Columbus 16-6 the rest of the period after Johansen scored.
The Avalanche scored 30 seconds into the game on a goal by Jarome Iginla, who intercepted Savard's pass from the left corner in the slot. The goal was the 570th of Iginla's NHL career, three behind Mike Bossy for 20th all time.
Dubinsky tied the game 1-1 at 11:35. Defenseman Cody Goloubef took a shot from the right circle and Dubinsky deflected it past Varlamov for his first goal of the season.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
05/01/2015 - 04:54
