Avalanche v. Oilers - Scoring Chances #22

Tm	P	Time	Note	COL						Opponent
EDM	1	16:49		8	10	27	31	54		10	27	38	44	71	83	4v5
EDM	1	16:39		8	10	27	31	54		10	27	38	44	71	83	4v5
COL	1	11:35	Goal	9	20	22	23	31		13	38	44	77	89		4v4
EDM	1	11:08		5	22	31	37	44	54	5	10	27	38	71	83	5v5
COL	1	6:23		5	10	25	31	37	55	19	24	38	44	67	85	5v5
EDM	1	3:24		22	25	27	31	37	55	5	10	27	38	71	83	5v5
EDM	1	3:22	Goal	22	25	27	31	37	55	5	10	27	38	71	83	5v5
EDM	1	2:55		8	22	26	27	31	54	16	18	24	38	44	46	5v5
COL	1	1:38		5	9	10	23	31	45	19	38	43	67	77	85	5v5
COL	1	1:26	Goal	5	9	10	23	31	45	19	38	43	67	77	85	5v5
EDM	2	19:40	Goal	5	10	25	31	37	55	19	24	38	44	67	85	5v5
COL	2	18:48	Goal	8	22	26	27	31	54	5	10	27	38	71	83	5v5
EDM	2	18:20		9	16	20	23	31	44	16	18	24	38	44	46	5v5
EDM	2	16:23		8	22	27	31	37	54	10	24	27	38	44	83	5v5
EDM	2	13:09		8	22	27	31	54		16	19	38	44	71	89	4v5
EDM	2	9:39		22	25	27	31	37	55	5	10	27	38	71	83	5v5
EDM	2	9:35		22	25	27	31	37	55	5	10	27	38	71	83	5v5
COL	2	8:58	Goal	5	9	10	16	23	31	13	24	38	44	67	89	5v5
EDM	2	8:28		8	22	26	27	31	54	10	24	27	38	44	83	5v5
COL	2	6:26		5	23	26	27	31	40	5	10	24	38			5v3
COL	2	6:18		5	23	26	27	31	40	5	10	24	38			5v3
COL	2	5:46		5	23	26	27	31	40	5	10	24	38			5v3
COL	2	4:17		5	8	23	26	27	31	10	24	38	43	44		5v4
COL	2	3:07		9	16	20	22	31	40	13	24	27	38	44		5v4
EDM	2	0:17	Goal	22	27	31	44	54	55	5	13	38	67	71	89	5v5
EDM	3	18:59		22	26	27	31	37		10	27	38	44	71	83	4v5
EDM	3	17:17		5	26	31	37	44		16	19	24	38	77	89	4v5
EDM	3	17:16	Goal	5	26	31	37	44		16	19	24	38	77	89	4v5
EDM	3	16:17		9	10	27	31	40	45	5	10	27	38	71	83	5v5
COL	3	15:40		8	10	22	26	31	54	5	10	27	38	71	83	5v5
COL	3	11:22		9	22	25	27	31	45	5	19	38	67	71	85	5v5
EDM	3	8:56		20	31	37	40	44	55	5	19	38	67	71	85	5v5
EDM	3	8:54	Goal	20	31	37	40	44	55	5	19	38	67	71	85	5v5
COL	3	6:53		10	16	23	26	31	44	5	19	38	67	71	85	5v5
COL	3	5:13		5	10	31	37	40	45	8	13	16	38	43	89	5v5
COL	3	5:10		5	10	31	37	40	45	8	13	16	38	43	89	5v5
COL	3	1:44		5	10	16	31	37	40	19	24	38	44	67	85	5v5
EDM	3	0:44	Goal	8	9	20	23	26	27	5	10	27	38	71	83	5v5

#	Player	EV			PP			SH
5	B. CLARK	15:05	7	2	1:07	1	0	3:01	0	2
8	W. WOLSKI	15:53	2	4	2:21	1	0	2:21	0	3
9	M. DUCHENE	14:11	5	3	2:57	1	0	0:17	0	0
10	K. CUMISKEY	16:09	9	2	1:18	0	0	2:08	0	2
16	D. TUCKER	12:15	3	1	1:39	1	0	0:17	0	0
20	T. PREISSING	9:03	1	4	1:26	1	0	0:07	0	0
22	S. HANNAN	20:54	4	9	0:27	1	0	6:46	0	2
23	M. HEJDUK	12:40	5	2	0:44	1	0	0:56	0	0
25	C. STEWART	7:44	2	5	1:18	0	0	0:00	0	0
26	P. STASTNY	15:16	3	3	2:02	1	0	3:15	0	3
27	K. QUINCEY	20:17	2	10	2:15	1	0	4:40	0	4
28	D. KOCI	2:09	0	0	0:00	0	0	0:00	0	0
31	P. BUDAJ	44:20	12	14	3:47	2	0	10:13	0	6
37	R. O'REILLY	11:58	4	9	0:06	0	0	5:02	0	3
40	M. SVATOS	10:06	3	3	1:03	1	0	0:00	0	0
44	R. WILSON	8:57	1	5	0:00	0	0	3:44	0	2
45	C. DURNO	7:56	5	1	0:00	0	0	0:00	0	0
54	D. JONES	12:58	2	5	0:06	0	0	4:36	0	3
55	C. MCLEOD	8:44	1	8	0:06	0	0	3:42	0	0

Period	Totals		EV		PP		5v3 PP		SH		5v3 SH
1	4	6	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
2	7	8	2	7	2	0	3	0	0	1	0	0
3	6	7	6	4	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	17	21	12	15	2	0	3	0	0	6	0	0

I should of course begin this review with two things. Firstly, I've fallen quite a few games behind on these scoring chance reviews but I'm hoping to catch up by the end of the weekend. We'll see how that goes. Secondly, I feel compelled to note the fact that I'm a fan of the Oilers which makes the games the Avalanche play against the Oilers particularly difficult to review bias-free. With those caveats out of the way, I thought that this game was one the Avalanche simultaneously should have won but had no business winning. Why should they have won? Well, anytime you have a two-goal lead and an extended two-man advantage, you should win the game, no ifs, ands or buts. Why did they have no business winning? Well, as we can see by the totals they were outchanced and when you take away the last seven minutes when the Oilers were more or less sitting back, they were actually outchanced quite badly. What saved them was scoring on four of their first six chances. That's not something that's going to happen all too often. Nonetheless, the Avalanche were unable to capitalize on the 5-on-3 power play in the second and the Oilers were able to make a comeback against a team playing its second game in two nights.

The game itself had a number of very physical plays from both sides. Watching the game with Oiler fans, you couldn't help but hear about the outrageously dirty hit by Ryan Wilson on Ethan Moreau. What you heard less about was Shawn Horcoff pushing Scott Hannan into the boards from behind in the first period, Gilbert Brule nailing Paul Stastny from behind in the corner or Sheldon Souray putting two hands into the face of Wojtek Wolski. Funny that. My own take is that these plays happen fast and that only the Souray play was so obvious that it simply needed to be called. Ray Ferraro was doing colour for TSN and he illustrates the point nicely with the Wilson hit. Immediately after it happened he said, "It looks like this was timed perfectly by Wilson." After several replays he concludes that, "This is an elbow by Wilson." Which still may not have been correct. The point is the play happened quickly and was on the margins and that fans need to, generally, give the referees more slack when it comes to calling plays like this for penalties.

In terms of the game itself I thought Matt Duchene had one of his best games in some time. He made one particularly good rush toward the end of the third period which can't help put drop your jaw just a bit... even if you're cheering for the other team.