As usual, a game against the Colorado Avalanche was all the Vancouver Canucks needed to break out of their four game losing streak.
In a tightly-fought battle for first place in the Northwest Division, Vancouver leaned on their stars and took advantage of a couple of lucky bounces to defeat Colorado and end their four game winning streak. Roberto Luongo stopped 21 of 23 shots, including withstanding a desperate 6 on 4 charge by the Avalanche to end the game.
Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin ended their two game scoring drought in a big way, with Daniel scoring a goal and an assist and Henrik adding two assists. Ryan Kessler added a goal via lucky bounce as, for the second time against Vancouver this season, the puck bounced off Peter Budaj’s helmet and into the net, making the game 3-1.
Matt Duchene made the game close with a hard-working second effort, pushing the puck past Luongo’s pads to cut the deficit to 3-2. Unfortunately, Alexandre Burrows put the game out of reach with a goal 13 minutes into the third period.
With the victory, Vancouver moved into a tie for first place in the divison, though Colorado officially holds first place due to a higher number of wins this season. Vancouver places themselves in great position to win the season series and tiebreaker, in case the two teams end up tied at the end of the year.
Colorado has struggled mightily against Vancouver the past two years, earning only five of a possible 18 points against their divisional foe.