DENVER, Colo – Like Jimmy Buffet sings, “You got fins to the left – fins to the right”, and in game six the young Avalanche team were “the only bait in town” in this Western Conference Quarter Finals game against the San Jose Sharks.
“Can’t you feel ’em circling honey?”
Joe Pavelski set the tone early as he circled behind goalie Craig Anderson and muscled a wraparound shot into the net just 47 seconds after the puck drop. That one goal lead held up for the Sharks until 6:14 of the second period when much maligned Avalanche forward , Marek Svatos, out skated Joe Thronton and slid a back hand shot through Evgeni Nabokov to tie the game.
Paul Stastny set up line mate Brandon Yip early in the third period for the goal that gave Colorado it’s first lead in regulation since game two in this series. Unfortunately for the Avalanche and their fans, the lift that goal brought was fairly short-lived as Dan Boyle tied it up for San Jose less than three minutes later.
“Can’t you feel them schooling around?”
90 seconds after the Boyle goal Pavelski scored his second goal of the game to put the Sharks on top for good. The young Avalanche skaters battled to the bitter end but were not able to get the game tied. With Anderson pulled for the extra attacker the Sharks smelled blood and managed to deal the death blow into the empty net not once but twice to yield a final score of 5 to 2.
“Just behind the reef are the big white teeth of the sharks that can swim on the land.”
Despite the first game win and the exciting overtime victory in the third game of this series, there was always a sense that the Colorado Avalanche winning four games against the San Jose Sharks was going to be a huge challenge.
Colorado fought valiantly and won games 1 and 3 but the tide turned in game four when the #8 seed Avalanche lost in overtime in a game that was theirs for the taking. Game five was a wave of the white flag and in game six, although a much better played game, the size, strength, skill, and experience of the #1 seed San Jose Sharks caused the Avalanche to finally succumb. Contact the author at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com
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