|
 Berra earned his second career shutout as the Colorado Avalanche
defeated the Anaheim Ducks 3-0 on Friday night in front of 17,174 at
the Honda Center.
"Mentally, I was confident and I saw the puck really good," Berra
said. "I didn't care about the score. I just played every puck."
Berra made 35 saves in his second consecutive appearance. He
relieved starter Semyon Varlamov late in the second period of
Colorado's 6-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night in
Denver and stopped all five shots he faced.
The shutout extended Berra's streak of consecutive scoreless minutes
to 164 over two seasons. Berra earned his first shutout April 9, and
has not allowed a goal since Anaheim's Richard Rakell scored at
17:58 of the first period April 3.
Berra received help from Colorado's penalty killers. The Avalanche
defused five power plays and held Anaheim to only four shots on goal
in the process.
"The guys played great in front of me," Berra said. "I don't know
how many blocked shots they had. A couple of times, I thought I was
beaten. I couldn't find the puck. But the guys blocked shots and
rescued me."
The Avalanche amassed 41 blocks, 18 of them in the third period, to
the Ducks' 12.
"The tracking was phenomenal tonight," Colorado coach Patrick Roy
said. "We defended really well. We gave up 30 shots but a lot of
them came from outside."
The Ducks (0-3-1) have not started a season with four successive
losses since 2008. They only have one goal in four games, from
defenseman Sami Vatanen.
"I've never seen it in my time coaching, and I can't remember when I
was playing going four games without a forward scoring," Anaheim
coach Bruce Boudreau said. "But I told the players that you've got
to hang in there because when it's the lowest time and then you pull
out of it, it's amazing how you turn things around."
The Ducks, who were shutout just four times last season, have been
silenced in three of their first four games.
"We're a team with a lot of guys who can score goals," Ducks left
winger Carl Hagelin said. "All it takes is one shot, one lucky
bounce. Once that happens, it should be a snowball effect."
The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead with their first shot 53 seconds into
the game. Center Nathan MacKinnon received a pass from left winger
Alex Tanguay and fired a slap shot from the right-wing boards near
the face-off circle past goalie Frederik Andersen for his second
goal of the season. The goal was the quickest allowed by Anaheim
this season.
[to top of second column] |
The Ducks responded with 11 shots on goal in the first 10 minutes,
to no effect. Berra made three big saves. He stopped Hagelin's
deflection of a slap shot at 3:28, kept right winger Tim Jackman
from stuffing the puck inside the left post at 5:48 and made a kick
save against center Ryan Getzlaf's wrist shot from the left-wing
boards at 7:44.
Anaheim went on a power play when Colorado defenseman Nick Holden
received a slashing penalty at 9:57 of the first period but managed
only one shot on goal in two minutes. The Ducks launched 15 shots in
the period.
Right winger Jack Skille extended the Avalanche's lead to 2-0 at
7:11 of the second period. Skille scored his first goal of the
season by powering a slap shot between Andersen's legs from the
left-wing boards near the face-off circle.
Center John Mitchell ended the scoring with an empty-net goal at
19:15 of the final period. Mitchell scored his fourth goal to tie
left wing Gabriel Landeskog for the team lead.
Andersen finished with 22 saves.
NOTES: Colorado scratched D Brad Stuart, D Brandon Gormley and RW
Borna Rendulic. ... Avalanche RW Jarome Iginla needs one point to
tie Hall of Famer Norm Ullman for 39th place all-time with 1,229
points. ... Avalanche D Francois Beauchemin is the first defenseman
since the franchise moved from Quebec in 1995 to record five points
in the first two games of a season. ... Avalanche LW Gabriel
Landeskog needs one point to reach 200 in his NHL career. ...
Anaheim scratched D Clayton Stoner, C Shawn Horcoff and C Mike
Santorelli. ... The Ducks unveiled their new third jersey Friday
night. The jersey features the original Mighty Ducks logo on a field
of orange. ... Anaheim entered the game ranked last in the NHL with
0.3 goals per game.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
