Colorado Avalanche behind Ryan O’Reilly defeat the Florida Panthers, 3-2
By Andrew Dill
Jan 24, 2014; Sunrise, FL, USA; Florida Panthers goalie Tim Thomas (34) stops a shot by Colorado Avalanche center Ryan O
The Colorado Avalanche (23-13-5, 69 points) bounce back from a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs and come to Sunrise, Florida with a victory over the Florida Panthers. Colorado scored two first period goals to set the tone for the rest of the game as Ryan O’Reilly and Paul Stastny collected the goals.
Ryan O’Reilly would get things started in the first period as the forward scored his 19th goal of the season. The goal would be a career-high for O’Reilly as he has now collected five goals in the last six games. Matt Duchene would pick up the lone assist on the goal. Late in the first period, Paul Stastny would bury one in the back of the net for his 14th of the season as Gabriel Landeskog and Alex Tanguay picked up the points. This is Tanguay’s first game back since November 2nd where he injured his knee against the Montreal Canadiens. The forward would miss 36 games.
After a 2-0 first period, Colorado kept adding on in the second as forward Jamie McGinn would collect goal number 11 on the season. Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene would collect the assists. The third period got a bit interesting as Scottie Upshall of the Florida Panthers would net his 8th goal of the season to bring the score within 2. Tomas Fleischmann and Tom Gilbert would pick up the points on the goal.
With less than two minutes to go in the third period, Tom Gilbert would score an unassisted slap-shot goal for his 3rd of the season as Florida trailed Colorado by one goal. It would be too little too late as Colorado came away with the victory, 3-2. Florida did however have all the momentum in the period as they outshot the Avalanche 20-to-6.
Three Stars:
3: Tom Gilbert (FLA): 1 goal, 1 assist.
2: Semyon Varlamov (COL): 34-of-36 saves, .944% save percentage.
1: Ryan O’Reilly (COL): 1 goal, 1 assist.
The Colorado Avalanche (32-13-5, 69 points) will hit the road as they travel to Tampa to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Puck-Drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM ET, 5:00 PM MT.