Postgame Notes & Quotes Colorado Avalanche 5, Winnipeg Jets 2 Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017
Colorado’s five goals is their second highest total this season (6: Oct. 15 vs. Dallas).
Jarome Iginla’s power-play goal in the first period was his fourth man-advantage tally of the season, a team high. It was also his first multipoint game of the season.
Matt Duchene tied a career high with three assists (2x: March 8, 2016 vs. Chicago, April 26, 2013 at Phoenix), registering his eighth multi-point game and first multiple-assist game of the season. His three helpers are the most by an Avalanche player this season and the most since Tyson Barrie notched three on Nov. 3, 2015 vs. Calgary. He also tied a season high with five shots on goal (3x: Oct. 22 at Florida, Dec. 18 at Winnipeg, Dec. 20 at Minnesota).
Duchene’s 20 faceoff wins is the second most of his career (24: March 27, 2013 at Calgary). His 83.3% success rate sets a new career high (82.8%: March 27, 2013 at Calgary) and is the fourth highest in Avalanche history (min: 20 faceoffs taken) since the stat began tracking in 1999-2000.
Nikita Zadorov recorded a season high 25:18 of ice time.
Matt Nieto’s two goals ties a career high (2x: Feb. 3, 2014 vs. Philadelphia, March 3, 2015 at Vancouver). He’s recorded three goals in his last four games and now has five points (four goals, one assist) in 11 games since being claimed off waivers on Jan. 5.
With two goals on the day, this was the first multi-goal game of the season for Adam Lowry and the third time in his career that he’s recorded two goals.
Colorado C Matt Duchene On Getting The Win: “We played like an NHL hockey team tonight. We haven’t had many showings like that lately so it’s nice to put a game together like that. It felt like the start of the year.”
On The Team’s Performance: “Like I said, we just did everything better. Everyone brought their game and everybody was just playing hard. Obviously, there’s still mistakes, there’s going to be. Every team makes mistakes. It doesn’t matter if you win 10-1 or 3-2 or whatever, there’s mistakes on both sides of the game, it’s a game of mistakes but we limited our mistakes tonight when we did make them. We got some big saves from Picks (Colorado G Calvin Pickard) and we had guys covering up for each other. We were playing as a five-man unit which we haven’t done enough of this season.”
Colorado D Mark Barberio On Playing In His First Game For The Avalanche: “It was a lot of fun. Obviously, it was fun to win. It’s always a positive. It was a great team effort tonight. Everybody contributed. All four lines, all six D were on top of their game. We played well defensively and capitalized on our chances.”
On The Start Of The Game: “Getting the first goal is always big in a hockey game and it was big for the PP to get it and to establish momentum for us. Special teams in general were pretty good for us. Defensively on the PK we did a good job as well. It was a good game, a really good effort.”
Colorado RW Jarome Iginla On His Goal: “That was our first power play. Right before that, Dutchy (Colorado C Matt Duchene) hit the bar over on the right side and I thought Beauch (Colorado D Francois Beauchemin) made a real nice play. I thought he was going to shoot it down the wall but he saw me kind of come to the middle and poked it to me and their D got a little wide and there was a gap so I tried to jump into it. I was excited because I looked up and Dutchy was right in front with their guy and Dutch got their goalie to look the one way and I was just trying to throw it back right over his shoulder but he couldn’t see anything. It was a great screen and it felt nice to see that go in and just for the team to get off to a good start at home.”
On The Team’s Performance: “Tonight felt different than a lot of games. We know we are a better group than we’ve been playing and it snowballed in the wrong direction for a while and then you lose your confidence as a group and we’re all thinking too much. This game, I felt like we just went out and played as hard as we could and had fun doing it and had some composure. Some huge hits by Z (Colorado D Nikita Zadorov), it was fun watching him and clean ones too. That was a big boost for us and I thought Barbs (Colorado D Mark Barberio) coming in, he played really well. It was a team effort all the way around but it felt good, we had fun doing it and that’s what we have to find again.”
Winnipeg RW Blake Wheeler On The Game Tonight: “We didn’t move our feet, it makes it tough. In this league the competition is too good and when you don’t come in ready to move your feet that’s what happens.”
On The Team’s Performance: “Just one of those games where we weren’t good enough. That’s basically it; they came out determined and kind of put us back in our heels, and we just weren’t able to get anything going.”
Winnipeg C Adam Lowry On The Game Tonight: “Credit to the Avalanche they played a pretty solid game and they didn’t give us any opportunities. Some of that was our doing I think, and we got caught puck watching and standing still with the puck a little too much tonight.”
On The Avalanche’s Performance: “We look at their roster, obviously their record, they’re not where they want to be sitting right now, I don’t think they are where people expect them to be. They have a lot of skill up front, they can score goals and that was happening tonight. We knew it was going to be a quick game and for whatever reason their speed kind of dictated the game and we weren’t able to use our pace to the advantage.”