Colorado Avalanche vs. Minnesota Wild Tuesday, October 4, 2016 Pepsi Center (Denver, Colo.)
Colorado Avalanche (3-0-0) Minnesota Wild (2-2-0)
1 Semyon Varlamov G 32 Alex Stalock G 31 Calvin Pickard G 35 Darcy Kuemper G
3 Chris Bigras D 3 Charlie Coyle F 4 Tyson Barrie D 4 Mike Reilly D 8 Joe Colborne C 5 Christian Folin D 12 Jarome Iginla RW 6 Marco Scandella D 17 Mike Sislo RW 7 Chris Stewart F 20 Ben Smith RW 10 Jordan Schroeder F 24 Rene Bourque RW 16 Jason Zucker F 25 Mikhail Grigorenko C 18 Ryan Carter F 26 Trent Vogelhuber RW 22 Nino Niederreiter F 27 Andreas Martinsen LW 24 Matt Dumba D 32 Francois Beauchemin D 25 Jonas Brodin F 34 Carl Soderberg C 27 Zac Dalpe F 37 J.T. Compher LW 29 Jason Pominville F 44 Eric Gelinas D 39 Nate Prosser D 51 Fedor Tyutin D 44 Tyler Graovac F 54 Anton Lindholm D 47 Christoph Bertschy F 55 Cody McLeod LW 53 Alex Tuch F 92 Gabriel Landeskog LW 54 Joel Eriksson Ek F 56 Erik Haula F 63 Kurtis Gabriel F 79 Hunter Warner D
President Josh Kroenke General Manager/EVP Chuck Fletcher Exec. VP/ GM Joe Sakic Assistant General Manager Brent Flahr Head Coach Jared Bednar Head Coach Bruce Boudreau Assistant Coach Tim Army Assistant Coach John Anderson Assistant Coach Dave Farrish Assistant Coach Scott Stevens Assistant Coach Nolan Pratt Assistant Coach Darby Hendrickson Goaltending Coach Francois Allaire Goaltending Coach Bob Mason Video Coordinator Brett Heimlich
REFEREES: Chris Schlenker (#48), Ian Walsh (#29) LINESMEN: Lonnie Cameron (#74), Vaughan Rody (#73)
AVALANCHE PRESEASON GAME NOTES Tuesday, October 4, 2016 Avalanche vs. Minnesota Wild — Pepsi Center
Tonight: The Colorado Avalanche hosts the Minnesota Wild at 7 p.m. (MT) at the Pepsi Center, the third home game and fourth overall of the Avs’ preseason slate. Colorado is 3-0-0 in exhibition games so far this season with wins over the Wild, the Dallas Stars and the Los Angeles Kings. Tonight’s contest will be the final home game of the preseason for Colorado. They’ll play another road contest at Dallas on Wednesday and then wrap up the preseason with the annual Frozen Fury game against the Kings on Sat., Oct. 8 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Tune In: All preseason and regular season games can be heard on the Altitude Radio Network, with Altitude Sports Radio (KKSE 950AM) serving as the flagship home of Avalanche hockey in 2016-17. Marc Moser will call the action for all six exhibition games and all 82 regular season contests, with Altitude TV analyst Peter McNab joining him in the booth for the preseason.
Date Opponent Time (MT) Location Result Tue., Sept. 27, 2016 @Minnesota Wild 6 p.m. Xcel Energy Center W, 4-1 Wed., Sept. 28, 2016 Dallas Stars 7 p.m. Pepsi Center W, 4-2 Fri., Sept. 30, 2016 Los Angeles Kings 7 p.m. Pepsi Center W, 3-1 Tue., Oct. 4, 2016 Minnesota Wild 7 p.m. Pepsi Center Wed., Oct. 5, 2016 @Dallas Stars 6:30 p.m. American Airlines Center Sat., Oct. 8, 2016 vs. Los Angeles Kings 8 p.m. T-Mobile Arena (Las Vegas)
Avs Undefeated in Preseason: The Avalanche is 3-0-0 in the preseason with wins over the Wild, the Dallas Stars and the Los Angeles Kings. Colorado has outscored opponents 11-4 through three games and is a perfect 14-for-14 on the penalty kill. With three goals in two games, center Mikhail Grigorenko leads all Avalanche skaters and is tied for second in the NHL in goals.
Grigorenko scored twice to lead the Avalanche to a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night. The Avs raced out to a 2-0 lead in the opening period and led 2-1 heading into the first intermission. Grigorenko’s second tally came on the power play early in the second stanza to give Colorado the win. Nathan MacKinnon, playing in his first preseason contest, scored the Avs’ first goal. Semyon Varlamov, also seeing his first preseason action since returning from the World Cup, played all 60 minutes in goal and made 33 saves on 34 shots.
Second Exhibition Meeting With Wild: Tuesday night’s game will be the second of the preseason between the Avalanche and the Wild. The Avs fought back from an early 1-0 deficit to take a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild in its preseason opener on Sept. 27 at the Xcel Energy Center. Rene Bourque led the way with a goal and an assist for Colorado, while Mike Sislo, Mikhail Grigorenko and Ben Smith each added tallies in the win. Jeremy Smith started the game in net and played 40 minutes, finishing with 16 saves on 17 shots. Nathan Lieuwen, who began the third period, stopped all 11 shots he faced. The Avalanche finished 1-for-2 on the power play while holding the Wild scoreless on three opportunities with the man advantage.
2016-17 Preseason Game-by-Game Summary Scoring by Period Shots by Period Date Opp. 1 2 3 OT F 1 2 3 OT F PP PK Pen/Min GWG (Saves-Shots) 9/27 @MIN 0 0 0 - 1 11 6 11 - 28 0-3 1-2 2-4 D. Dubnyk (26-29) COL 0 2 2 - 4 8 11 11 - 30 1-2 3-3 3-6 R. Bourque J. Smith (27-28)/N. Lieuwen (11-11) 9/28 vs. DAL 0 2 0 2 13 11 7 31 0-6 2-2 7-20 P. Desrosiers (2-4)/A. Niemi (14-15) COL 1 0 3 4 8 7 5 20 0-2 6-6 11-28 B. Smith C. Pickard (22-24)/K. Simpson (7-7) 9/30 vs. LA 1 0 0 1 10 13 11 34 0-5 4-5 5-10 J. Zatkoff (7-10)/J. Campbell (12-12) COL 2 1 0 3 7 7 8 22 1-5 5-5 5-10 M. Grigorenko S. Varlamov (33-34) 10/4 vs. MIN COL 10/5 @DAL COL 10/8 *@LA COL * annual Frozen Fury game played at T. Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Avalanche vs. Wild Series History: The Avalanche is 41-36-3-9 in 89 all-time regular season games against the Wild and 22-19- 2-2 in games played at home in the series. Defenseman Tyson Barrie led all skaters with four points (one goal, three assists) in five games against the Wild during the 2015-16 regular season. Francois Beauchemin (three assists), Nathan MacKinnon (three assists) and John Mitchell (one goal, two assists) each added three points. Jarome Iginla and Mitchell were the leading goal scorers in the season series with two tallies apiece.
With 17 career points each against Minnesota, Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog are tied for seventh in Avalanche history all-time against the Wild. Cody McLeod’s 105 penalty minutes in the all-time series rank first in Avalanche history and first among all NHL skaters. Iginla ranks first in the NHL with 71 career points and 39 career goals against Minnesota. He also leads the league in all-time games played (81), time on ice (1705:46) and game-winning tallies (10) versus the Wild.
Jarome Iginla vs. Minnesota Wild Category Number All-Time NHL Rank Games 81 1st Points 71 1st Goals 39 1st Assists 32 3rd Time on Ice 1705:46 1st Power-play Goals 12 2nd Game-winning goals 10 1st
NHL All-Time Scoring Leaders vs. Minnesota Wild Rank Player Seasons GP G A PTS 1 Jarome Iginla 2000-01-2015-16 (15) 81 39 32 71 2 Henrik Sedin 2000-01-2015-16 (15) 80 13 54 67 3 Daniel Sedin 2000-01-2015-16 (15) 77 22 41 63 4 Milan Hejduk 2000-01-2012-13 (12) 68 22 28 50 5 Alex Tanguay 2000-01-2015-16 (15) 67 16 30 46 6 Ryan Smyth 2000-01-2013-14 (13) 64 20 24 44 7t Joe Thornton 2000-01-2015-16 (15) 41 11 28 39 7t Henrik Zetterberg 2002-03-2015-16 (12) 40 15 24 39 9 Joe Sakic 2000-01-2007-08 (7) 41 16 22 38 10t Shane Doan 2000-01-2015-16 (15) 53 12 25 37 10t Patrick Marleau 2000-01-2015-16 (15) 56 20 17 37
Colorado Avalanche All-Time Scoring Leaders vs. Minnesota Wild Rank Player Seasons GP G A PTS 1 Milan Hejduk 2000-01-2012-13 (12) 68 22 28 50 2 Joe Sakic 2000-01-2007-08 (7) 41 16 22 38 3 Paul Stastny 2006-07-2013-14 (8) 46 10 19 29 4 Peter Forsberg 2000-01-2007-08 (4) 15 6 18 24 5 Alex Tanguay 2000-01-2015-16 (8) 35 8 15 23 6 Rob Blake 2000-01-2005-06 (5) 25 3 15 18 7t Matt Duchene 2009-10-2015-16 (7) 35 5 12 17 7t Gabriel Landeskog 2011-12-2015-16 (5) 25 8 9 17 9 John-Michael Liles 2003-04-2010-11 (7) 46 6 10 16 10t Andrew Brunette 2005-06-2007-08 (3) 24 7 8 15 10t Wojtek Wolski 2006-07-20090-10 (4) 26 3 12 15
Transactions: On Sunday, Oct. 2, the Avalanche reassigned the following players to San Antonio (AHL): LW Troy Bourke, C Turner Elson, LW A.J. Greer, C Sam Henley, G Spencer Martin, C Jim O’Brien, G Jeremy Smith, D Ryan Stanton, and RW Joe Whitney.
On Thursday, Sept. 29, the Avalanche reassigned defenseman Nicolas Meloche (Gatineau, QMJHL), forwards Shawn St-Amant (San Antonio, AHL) and J.C. Beaudin (Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL) and goaltenders Nathan Lieuwen (San Antonio, AHL) and Kent Simpson (San Antonio, AHL). Additionally, defenseman Mason Geertsen and forward Reid Petryk will report to San Antonio (AHL) for injury rehab.
On Monday, Sept. 26, the Avalanche reassigned defenseman Josh Anderson (Prince George, WHL) and forwards Travis Barron (Ottawa, OHL), Jackson Houck (San Antonio, AHL), Brogan O'Brien (Prince George, WHL), Gustav Olhaver (Rogle J20, Sweden) and Jeffrey Truchon-Viel (Acadie-Bathurst, QMJHL).
Burgundy/White Game: The Avalanche hosted its annual Burgundy/White Game on Sunday, Sept. 25 at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus. Sergei Boikov’s shot rebounded to the stick of Mikhail Grigorenko, and with 28.8 seconds remaining in regulation, the Russian forward buried the puck to lift the White team to a 1-0 win. Jeremy Smith, Kent Simpson and Nathan Lieuwen each played a period in net for White, combining for 21 saves in the shutout victory. Calvin Pickard played 40 minutes for Burgundy and made 16 saves on 16 shots before Spencer Martin entered the game at the start of the third period.
2016 Rookie Showcase: The Avs hosted the 2016 Rookie Showcase, a three-day tournament with the Anaheim Ducks and the San Jose Sharks at the Ice Center at the Promenade in Westminster, Colo., from Sept. 17-19. The Avs won the tournament, taking 4-1 and 3-2 wins over the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks, respectively. Against the Sharks, J.T. Compher led all skaters with a goal and an assist. Chris Bigras, A.J. Greer and Nikita Zadorov tallied the other three goals for the Avalanche. Colorado finished 1-for-2 on the power play while holding the Sharks scoreless on seven opportunities with the man advantage. Spencer Martin stopped all 12 shots he saw before being replaced by Chase Marchand midway through the game. In the second contest against the Ducks, Cody Corbett recorded two assists and Nicolas Meloche, Gustav Olhaver and Chris Bigras each tallied goals to lift the Avs to a 3-2 win. Bigras’ goal, a blast from the point at 4:02 of the third period, stood as the game winner. Martin played all 60 minutes in goal and finished with 30 saves.
2016-17 Regular Season Schedule: The Avalanche opens its 21st season in Denver on Sat., Oct. 15 against the Dallas Stars… the Oct. 15 opener is the latest start date to a full season in Avalanche/Nordiques history… The Avs have only seven games in October (two at home), their fewest ever in that particular month… The Avalanche’s longest road trip of the year is five games (Feb. 11-17), while its longest homestand is also five contests (Nov. 23 to Dec. 3)… Colorado’s busiest month is March (16 games), which will equal its most games ever in that month. The Avs will also match their busiest December ever with 15 dates.