In Anaheim Friday night, the Ducks got a goal from Corey Perry with 1:25 gone in extra time to nip the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2.
“Sami (Sami Vatanen) made a great play at the blue line, got his stick on the puck and poked it ahead,” Perry said. “I was fortunate to have that breakaway. I had an idea of what I wanted to do and found a way [to score]. He probably scouted what I do on breakaways too.
“I have a couple of shots I like to do and I picked one.”
Vatanen was almost the goat of the game on a muff in the third that led to a shorthanded Avs goal.
“I think I’ve been lifting too much bench press at the gym, so my hands were a little bit frozen there and it bounced over my stick,” Vatanen said. “Sometimes that happens and you’ve got to just re-focus and do your thing again. It was my bad, but we got the ‘W.'”
The win came ahead of a five-game roadie for the Ducks.
“I don’t know if we expect to win, but we dig down and work harder,” Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But I think the belief that it’s possible is the thing that always gives you a chance. If you never thought it was possible, then it doesn’t happen.”
The Avs needed two points in their chase of the Winnipeg Jets and the final playoff spot in the west.
“We’re playing hard and we’re playing well,” forward Matt Duchene said. “It’s too bad we couldn’t have got that one, but three out of four on the road in a back-to-back situation, you know it’s not bad.
“I think we’re happy, but we’re not over the moon about it. We put ourselves in a situation to win that game. It’s too bad we couldn’t have.”
Semyon Varlamov took the loss on a busy 37-save night.
“It just tells you how important the goaltender becomes, and it is important for us to count on [Varlamov] every night, and he’s been doing just that,” Avs coach Patrick Roy said.
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