DENVER, Colorado -- The Colorado Avalanche capitalized on turnovers to earn a 4-2 win over the Red Wings Sunday night, ending Detroit's winning streak at seven games.
Colorado's first and third goals came on plays that saw the Red Wings cough the puck up.
Detroit opened the scoring with 4:52 left in the first period. On a power play, Pavel Datsyuk drove to the net through the right faceoff circle and the puck bounced out to Johan Franzen in the left circle, wide open to knock the puck into the empty side of the net past netminder Semyon Varlamov.
Just 26 seconds into the middle frame, the Avs got on the board. Gabriel Landeskog pressured defenseman Ian White behind the Detroit goal and stole the puck, sending it out front to Ryan O'Reilly for a shot past goalie Ty Conklin.
The Avalanche added a power play goal at 2:11 of the period, with Paul Stastny putting a shot from the right circle into an empty net as Conklin got spun around in a goalmouth scramble and stuck out of position.
Danny Cleary evened things up for Detroit at 5:08 of the third period, deflecting a Henrik Zetterberg shot past Varlamov to make it 2-2.
Another turnover would bite the Wings, however. At 9:22 of the period and with Detroit on a power play Darren Helm and Drew Miller miscommunicated at center ice and T.J. Galiardi poked the puck to Landeskog on the left wing. Landeskog and Galiardi broke in two-on-one and defenseman Niklas Kronwall didn't block the pass back across to Galiardi in the slot, where he rifled a shot past Conklin.
O'Reilly would add an empty net goal in the game's final minute to round out the scoring.
Conklin finished the night with 31 saves on 34 shots against. Varlamov stopped 27 of Detroit's 29 shots.
Both teams had a power play goal. The Red Wings had five tries with the extra attacker and Colorado had three.
The Wings will close out their three-game road trip in St. Louis on Wednesday.
Notes: Detroit forward Valtteri Filppula left the game in the first period with a cut on his leg and did not return. His status for Wednesday was not immediately known... Cory Emmerton and Mike Commodore were the healthy scratches for Detroit... Conklin made his first start in eighteen games.
Not a ton of pre-game notes from me, I'm running around in circles today and expect to miss the start of the game.
Ty Conklin gets his first start in ages after Jimmy Howard got the nod in 17 consecutive games. He blanked the Avs the last time the Wings were in Denver, his only good start of the season.
Chris Conner remains in the lineup as no other changes will be made.
Game time is 8:00 PM. TV is FSD, the NBA lockout means there's no Pistons game to push this one over to FS+ as originally scheduled.
For those who missed my tweet from Friday (or anyone else's since then), Dave Strader will be calling the game with Larry Murphy for FSD. Ken Daniels will miss this one and the one on Wednesday while spending time with his family after the death of his father.
Condolences to the Daniels family, of course, but if you'd watched the Buffalo game and didn't know what Ken was going through, you never would have realized it. Going through one of the worst times in a person's life and he remained an absolute professional. I feel like that adds to the myth of the game a bit. Hockey: Even the announcers are tough.
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My family dinner got pushed back so now I'd definitely missing the start of this one. I'll catch up when I can.
Checking in after a week + in the PACNORWEST. I see I missed quite a bit of action and can't wait for tonight's game! Why is the Lions game running concurrently? Now I have to flip back and forth!
Alright, got back just as the first period ended but caught the goal on the radio.
I'd forgotten how XTREEEEME the Colorado radio guy is. f*cking annoying.
Well... This period went to sh*t!
Conklin had no idea where that puck was. Ugh.
Noooooooo not my precious Finn. Also what happened with the two Av goals? I didn't get to see them!
Just tuned in. What I miss?
Just tuned in. What I miss?
Wings looking awful in the second - especially Conklin. Filppula out with a lower body injury.
I really wish Mick was in Colorado instead of Murph. We get Strader for a game and not his old partner?
Well, the good news is that the Wings seemingly stopped the bleeding. It looked much worse early in the second than it does right now.
Looking dangerous in the closing minute. Where were they in the previous 19 minutes?
Looking good so far...
Sweeeeeet!
Nice tip by Cleary. Wings looking better but not great in the third.
Nice re-direct by Clears.
So Kronwall neither covered the pass nor the shot. Nice D.
Damn it! Ty started that whole chain by mis-playing that puck down low. Ty is a fkg tool!
Way to take advantage of that extra skater, never controlling the puck.
Ty Conklin
Credit: Clark Rasmussen
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