Avalanche Is a Great Deal Better, 4-2

There is little doubt that the time is now for the Colorado Avalanche. On the other hand, there is some question whether the Ducks are now teetering on the brink, their thoughts perhaps turning to the future.

Some wheeling and dealing brought the Avalanche defenseman Ray Bourque, a five-time Norris Trophy winner, and goal scorer David Andreychuk.

The bounce has been considerable. The Avalanche’s 4-2 victory over the Mighty Ducks Tuesday in front of 18,007 at the Pepsi Center was its sixth consecutive and fourth since last week’s trade.

The Ducks? They picked up center Jorgen Jonsson Saturday and right wing Ed Ward before the trade deadline Tuesday. They didn’t bring so much as a hop.

The newcomers did get to see Duck hockey, at least the 1999-2000 version. The Ducks worked hard, tied the score early in the third period, then crumbled.

They couldn’t kill two key penalties. The first resulted in a Bourque goal, and the second led to a fluke goal when the puck went off Duck defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski’s stick and past goalie Dominic Roussel.

What was a 1-1 tie at 35 seconds of the third period, courtesy of defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky’s 12th goal, became a 3-1 Avalanche lead a little more than five minutes later. Joe Sakic added the coup de grace by extending his goal-scoring streak to six games with eight minutes left.

So while General Manager Pierre Gauthier gave a glowing State of the Ducks speech before the game, his team was left in a state of desperation afterward. They play the Kings tonight and San Jose on Friday. Two victories and the Ducks are alive. Two losses and it may be wait until next year.

“I like our club,” Gauthier said. “We hope to get into the playoffs. We have the type of team that could do some damage. But, whatever happens, I like the core we have.”

Gauthier is against the quick fix, preferring to build on draft picks and off-season trades.

“You’re not going to go trade your first-round pick every year, or trade all kinds of young players to get a little bit better,” Gauthier said. “A lot of teams tried it and it doesn’t work. You only get a little bit better than average. You’re still in the middle somewhere.”

The Avalanche, which was wallowing two weeks ago, leads the Northwest Division by four points after getting a lot better by adding Bourque and Andreychuk. The two paid further dividends on the winning goal Tuesday.

With the Ducks’ Ruslan Salei in the penalty box for holding, Peter Forsberg dug out the puck on the boards and slipped it back to Bourque at the blue line. Andreychuk screened Roussel and Bourque buried the puck in the net, his third goal in four games since the trade, for a 2-1 lead 2:20 into the third period.

“Ray is still one of the top defensemen in the league,” Duck left wing Paul Kariya said. “He is a great defensive player and is really good on the power play.”

The Avalanche has gone the quick-fix route before. Goalie Patrick Roy arrived in 1995 and the Stanley Cup followed. Last season, forward Theo Fleury arrived and helped push the Avalanche to the Western Conference finals.

Fleury left for the New York Rangers last summer, but Roy is still around. He was brilliant when he had to be Tuesday, blocking wide-open attempts by Ted Donato and Ladislav Kohn in the second period when the Ducks trailed 1-0.

“Unless you build up assets like Colorado, you can’t make those kind of deals,” Gauthier said.

The Ducks, though, don’t need a star. They need special-team help.

The last 30 seconds summed up the Ducks’ power-play work. They had a six-on-three advantage, after pulling Roussel and two Avalanche penalties, and still couldn’t score.

The Ducks’ penalty-killing units, which rank last in the NHL, allowed too many opportunities. Forsberg tried to center a pass to a streaking Sakic, but missed. Vishnevski didn’t, as he redirected the puck into the net.

“We have to play a perfect game,” Tverdovsky said. “We made little mistakes on that first power play. The second one, we had no luck. It seems like every night we have to overcome bad bounces.”

The Avalanche, however, had another good bounce Tuesday.