Avs beat St. Louis 5-2, move into tie for division lead

The Colorado Avalanche scored 3 goals in a 4:09 span of the second period to blow out the St. Louis Blues 5-2 Monday night at the Pepsi Center. With the win the Avalanche moved into a tie with the Vancouver Canucks for first place in the NHL’s Northwest Division.
Brandon Yip scored two goals, Paul Stastny had a goal and an assist and Chris Stewart notched a goal and two assists along with a fight to achieve a “Gordie Howe hat trick”.

Eric Brewer got the Blues on the board first at 3:34 of the first period. His wrist shot from the point eluded Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson, who protested that he was interfered with by the Blues’ David Backes. The referees disagreed and the Blues led 1-0.
Colorado tied the score 28 seconds later. T.J. Galiardi took a pass from Stewart, cut across the slot and fired a shot that beat Chris Mason in the St. Louis net, tying the game 1-1.
Eric Johnson regained the lead for the Blues at 7:59 when his shot from the point went through several players past Anderson to make the score 2-1.
Brandon Yip got the first of his two goals on a power play at 16:42. Kyle Cumiskey fired a slap shot from the point and Mason made the initial save. Yip knocked the rebound into the net for the tying score.

The Avalanche jumped out early in the second period and never looked back. Chris Stewart tipped a Ryan Wilson slap shot past Mason at 2:25 to give the Avs the lead.
A minute and a half later Paul Stastny scored on a backhand shot to give the Avalanche a two goal edge.
Brandon Yip closed out the scoring with his second goal of the game. Wojtek Wolski sent a pass to Yip in the left face-off circle and Yip beat Mason to make the score 5-2. The Blues then replaced Mason with Ty Conklin, who stopped all 18 shots he faced. Mason had stopped 10 of 15.

Craig Anderson had another strong game in goal for the Avalanche. He took a hard shot off his right shoulder in the second period and was down for several minutes, but stayed in the game. He finished with 32 saves on 34 shots to earn his 29th win of the season.

NOTES
-Matt Duchene had an assist on Yip’s second goal to give him 11 points in his last 11 games.
-Avs enforcer David Koci left the game after a first period fight and did not return,
-With his two goals, Brandon Yip now has 18 points in 22 games.

NEXT
The Avs host the Atlanta Thrashers Wednesday in game three of the four game home stand.

Bruce Wilkie is a Colorado semi-native, having moved to Denver in 1971. He has worked with pro and college hockey teams since 1975 and now covers the Avs for thehockeywriters.com.