Colorado Avalanche (6) vs Calgary Flames (5)..........
The Avs rolled into Cowtown on Saturday night and put on a special team show that has rarely been seen, as Colorado scored twice on the powerplay BUT they also managed three shorthanded goals on the night.
The Flames opened the scoring on Mike Richards 8th of the season at 8:17 of the first. When the Avs' Brendan Dillon was called for tripping at 11:27, the Flames saw their chance to double their lead, but Colorado had other ideas as Marian Hossa (17th) and Martin St.Louis (16th) scored shorthanded twenty-four seconds apart to take a one goal lead at the 12:07 mark. When Dustin Penner was whistled for hooking 14:13 you could sense the Avs were thinking of duplicating their earlier success but it was the Flames, who clicked on the powerplay as Steven Stamkos notched his 31st of this young season, which leads the WCHL. The Flames out-shot Colorado 12-5 in the period yet found themselves tied 2-2. It was Calgary who would open the scoring in the second as well as Pascal Dupuis banged in his 6th of the season again on the powerplay. Martin St.Louis scored his 17th (second of the night), tying up the affair once more, his goal was just eight seconds after Dupuis had put Calgary up by one. Next it was the Avalanche's turn to strike with the extra skater as Louie Eriksson scored his 6th of the year with forty-seven seconds left in the first, the Avs took the lead into the locker room after 40 minutes with the Flames leading 24-23 in shots. With Colorado running into penalty trouble again Pascal Dupuis scored his second powerplay goal of the game at 8:40 pulling the Flames even, then fifty-eight seconds later Steven Stamkos scored his 2nd of the night for Calgary putting them ahead by one (the goal was just Calgary's second even strength goal of the night.). With the Flames on yet another powerplay, Marian Hossa would score his second of the night (both SH) for Colorado, then Patrick Sharp would put the Avs up by one for good as he took a beautiful pass from David Kjecji and deposited his 10th of the season at 13:25 on the powerplay to finish the scoring.
Craig Anderson stopped 28 shots for his 18th win of the year. It was the Avs' second win of the season against Calgary in three meetings, the teams will meet once more this season. Cam Ward made 31 saves and saw his record drop to 13-6 on the year.
MOLSON'S 3 STARS:
1 - Martin St. Louis (Col).............. 2 goals, 2 assists, +4, 4 shots
2 - Marian Hossa (Col)................. 2 goals, 1 assists, +3, 4 shots
3 - Filip Kuba (Col)....................... 4 assists, +3, 1 shot, 6 blocked shots
HONORABLE MENTION:
Pascal Dupuis (Cal)...................... 2 goals, 1 assist, 2 shots
GAME'S GOAT:
Daniel Alfredsson (Cal)................ registered one assist on Calgary's opening goal but went practically unnoticed on the ice after that except for his miscues (he was -4), he finished the night with a single shot on net, not enough for a player looked upon for his scoring and leadership.

Colorado will hope to continue their unbeaten ways as they host the Wild on Sunday. Minnesota is coming off a 8-6 loss in their most recent game, which incidentally was against the same Avalanche. Then the Stars come to town on Tuesday, Dallas has just two wins in their last ten games. The Avs then travel to Music City on Wednesday to take on Herik Zetterberg and his Predators, Nashville has just three losses in their past ten games.
Calgary will hope to get back on the horse as they travel to St.Louis to battle the Blues on Sunday who are winners of their last two games, most recently a 4-0 white wash of the Predators. Tuesday the Flames return to the Saddledome to take on the Kings who are hot on their heels in the standings. Then it's off to Winterpeg on Wednesday to take on the Jets who are presently in seventh in the West just 5 points behind Calgary. The Jets dropped a 5-1 decision to the powerhouse Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.

Reporting For the WCHL Network This Has Been......
Peter Puck

Anaheim Ducks (5) vs Toronto Maple Leafs (3).........
The Leafs, with their newly acquired trigger-man in tow faced the undefeated "Mighty" Ducks of Anaheim at the ACC on Saturday night. The odds were stacked against the Leafs to beat the Ducks but they managed to put more than just a moderate scare into GM Danton and his charges before finally falling short of their goal of the night.
The Leafs led 1-0 and 2-1 in the first period thanks to a goal and an assist by Evgeni "Gino" Malkin. Matt Moulson (15th) on the year pulled the Ducks even before the end of the period. Anaheim, sensing a slight momentum shift toward the Leafs in the first, came out in the second with a purpose and out-shot Toronto 11-4. Goals by Shea Weber (11th) and Matt Moulson, his second of the night (16th) staked them to a 4-2 lead after 40. Victor Hedman's (5th) goal in the third was pretty much the exclamation mark GM Danton expected to see earlier on in the game but the Leafs would give his team more than most expected. The Leafs managed one more past Rask before the game was over as Malkin would win a face off in the Ducks end to the left of Rask, the puck made it's way back to Markov, who in turn feed a cross-ice feed to Mark Giordano who fired his 3rd of the year past the Finnish puck stopper. The goal was pretty much just window dressing as the game was for all intense and purposes over, but the Leafs know now they can play with any of the "big boys".
Rask finished the game making 17 saves on 20 shots and won for the 11th time this season. His counter part Jonas Hiller stopped 24 shots and had his personal record drop to 7-4-1 on the season.
MOLSON'S 3 STARS:
1 - Matt Moulson (Ana)........... 2 goals, +2, 3 shots.
2 - Victor Hedman (Ana)......... 1 goal, 1 assist, +4, 3 shots
3 - Patrice Bergeron (Ana)..... 3 assists, +2, 5 shots
HONORABLE MENTION:
Evgeni Malkin (Tor)......... 1 goal, 2 assists, 2 shots
GAME'S GOAT:
Jan Hejda (Tor)..... 0 points, -2, was paired with Markov with the job of shadowing the Ducks first line and most times was virtually invisable, leaving Markov scrambling to cover for his micues.

The Ducks hope to continue their undefeated season in defense of their WCHL Championship (2nd in team history), hoping to follow what three teams before them have done and that is win back-to-back Championships (Sharks,Rangers, Avalanche). They do so starting Monday as they meet their State rival Sharks in Anaheim, San Jose has fallen out of grace of late as they see themselves clinging onto the final playoff spot in the West by a single point, losers of four straight and eight of their first twelve games of Season 18. Then face their other state cousin, LA Kings and their newest GM Paul Pontentier on Wednesday also at home in Anaheim. The Kings have said good-bye to their superstar center, Evgeni Malkin and brought in Tomas Vanek and Mikko Koivu to replace him, the hope is that the scoring by committee will be equal or better then the scoring and presence "Gino" was supplying. Of note, in Pontentier's first game as GM the Kings won 2-1 over the struggling Blues of St.Louis.
The Leafs will try to gather themselves and get back to the top of the heap they call home....... The Atlantic Division. That starts on Monday in Tampa Bay as they battle the Lightning who have lost three straight and sit near the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Toronto then travels to the American capital to take on Washington. The Caps are coming of a 5-3 loss at the hands of the Penguins. Washington's Mike Ribeiro is averaging 2.16 points per game.

Reporting.........
Peter Puck