The trade deadline saw the Colorado Avalanche move Daniel Winnik and TJ Galiardi to the San Jose Sharks on the same day that they had the red hot Anaheim Ducks coming to town.

The Ducks are the best team in the NHL since the beginning of 2012 and the Avalanche, coming off a game where they dealt the Detroit Red Wings their first regulation home loss since the month of November, weren’t intimidated.

The first two periods were tightly played and saw each team score just one goal.

Cody McLeod opened the game up with a fortuitous bounce coming straight to him as Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller was sliding the other direction, leaving a mostly empty net for a simple backhander from McLeod.

The second period saw the team exchange penalties and Anaheim managed to make theirs a short power play. Bobby Ryan came down the right wing and just powered a wrist shot straight through Semyon Varlamov to tie the game.

The Avs came out like gangbusters in the third period though, getting a goal in the first minute of the period from Ryan O’Reilly. A couple of minutes later Paul Stastny fed Matt Duchene an impeccable saucer pass that Duchene slapped in for his first goal since returning from injury.

Jay McClement decided to get in on the beautiful goal parade with an amazing wrist shot that beat Hiller on the far blocker side to ice the game.

Gabriel Landeskog is now in the midst of a six game point streak with two assists last night, and now is just one point out of the lead in rookie scoring.

In the last four games, the Avalanche have scored 17 goals and won each.  Colorado is trending in the right direction at the right time of the year.

What do you think?

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