Shane Bowers scored twice, and Bowen Byram tallied in overtime to help the Colorado Avalanche earn a 5-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks in the 2021 Arizona Rookie Faceoff on Sunday.
Anaheim’s Sean Tschigerl recorded the only goal of the first period, but Colorado took the lead in the middle stanza after Matthew Boucher and Bowers each found the back of the net on odd-man rushes while the Avs were shorthanded.
Amateur tryout and Denver native Jack O’Brien gave the Avalanche a 3-1 advantage in the final minute of the frame right after a Colorado power-play chance expired.
“We just told them, I said this is an opportunity, there’s people out here that are watching you from the organization and you don’t want to be playing hockey on your heels,” said Colorado Eagles head coach Greg Cronin. “They got the message, and I liked the way we played in the second period and the third period. I thought they fought back, which they are going to do, and when we counter attacked and we forechecked, we got pucks back and we got some momentum out of it.”
Anaheim defenseman Tyson Hinds cut the Ducks’ deficit in half at 12:48 of the third and Bowers recorded his second of the game to make it a 4-2 contest at 17:25 after putting home a loose puck in front of the net.
The Ducks scored twice with their goalie pulled for an extra skater in the final 1:01 of regulation to force overtime. Colorado was awarded a power play in the OT period and Byram ended the game at 2:14 of the frame with a shot from the point while Sampo Ranta was screening the goaltender.
“We had a good faceoff win and got it set up, we had a couple plays to run,” Ranta said of the marker. “Bo took a good shot, and I was just trying to take the goalies eyes away and it went in, good shot.”
Trent Miner, selected by the Avalanche in the seventh round (No. 202 overall) of the 2019 draft, was in net for the entire contest for Colorado. Justus Annunen was in net on Friday when the Avs opened the tournament with a 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Peyton Jones is expected to be between the pipes when the Avalanche concludes the Rookie Faceoff against the San Jose Sharks at 10 a.m. MT on Monday.
“I thought Bo was good, I thought Newhook was really good, it was his best game and I thought he was good in all three zones,” said Cronin postgame. “Bowers started slow and then he came on in the second and third periods. There were guys that sporadically jumped, which you want to see. I thought Barron was good, I couldn’t go through the whole team, but I thought there were more guys that popped tonight than there was two nights ago.”
LINE COMBINATIONS
Based on start of the game
15 Shane Bowers – 18 Alex Newhook – 27 Oskar Olausson
75 Sampo Ranta – 93 Jean-Luc Foudy – 74 Alex Beaucage
64 Benjamin Tardif – 53 Jack O’Brien – 57 Tarun Fizer
54 Matej Kaslik – 58 Matthew Boucher – 86 Sasha Mutala
4 Bowen Byram – 84 Nate Clurman
45 Charle-Edouard D’Astous – 72 Justin Barron
46 Miles Gendron – 47 Graham Sward
50 Trent Miner
42 Peyton Jones
Colorado Avalanche 5 vs. Anaheim Ducks 4 – FINAL/OT
Sunday, September 19, 2021 – Ice Den Scottsdale
Goals by Period
Anaheim 1 0 3 0 – 4
Colorado 0 3 1 1 – 5