Top Ten of '09-'10: Duchene scores first NHL goal, Avs beat Les Ailes
| 21 Jun 2010
So I said I'd get around to doing a Top 10 of '09-10 and here it is,more than a month after the season ended for the Avs. I'll be countingdown all 10 of the top 10 Avs moments of the season. I thought aboutbreaking this into 2 posts, but then realized I could easily milk it for10. Without further adieu, here we go:
Original Recaps: Mile High Hockey, Anyone but Detroit, Avslova Factor,
Well, it only took seven games, but it felt like 20. Matt Duchene scored his first NHL goal against future hall-of-fame backup goalie Chirs Osgood. The hype around Duchene was pretty high coming into the season, which is pretty normal for a #3 overall draft pick who could have gone #1, and there was a small sense of disapointment setting in that he hadn't scored a goal yet. No one was panicking, like they did with Stamkos, because it was obvious to anyone who watched that Duchene was creating opportunities and hitting posts (my unofficial count had him at 35 posts in the first seven games).
More after the jump
But he had hit so many posts, and had been so snakebit that it kind of felt like he may never score. So it's almost kind of fitting that he scored on a soft goal allowed by Osgood. Ok let's not kid ourselves, I just like writing that Osgood gave up a soft goal. Luckily I get to write it quite often when he plays.
But this game wasn't all about Duchene's goal, just mostly. The Avs actually gave up the first two goals of the game, as Les Ailes scored within the first 5 minutes of both the first and second period, setting up a very exciting third. Cody McLeod opened the scoring on the first soft goal given up by Osgood on the night. (god I love writing that.)
Then at the 11:35 mark in the game Matt Duchene ties up the game at 2, with the first goal of his, soon to be long illustrious career.
Valteri Fillpula gave Detroit the lead again, and then McLeod, noted Les Ailes killer, sent the game to OT with a goal with just 2 & 1/2 minutes remaining in the game on a really nice team goal. Scott Hannan (!?!) with a great breakout pass to TJ Galiardi who cleanly won a battle along the boards, sending the puck over to the other notable rookie Ryan O'Reilly. O'Reilly then fed McLeod with a nice pass ona 2 vs 1, catching Osgood off-guard, and McLeod slotted it home.
The Avs twice came back from deficits to send the game to the shootout, where they eventually prevailed on Milan Hejduk and Marek Svatos shootout goals.