The Avalanche to a 1-0 win against the Penguins at Consol Energy Center.

Giguere, Avalanche shut down Penguins

**Because he only faced 14 shots. Had he faced 25-30+ and only allowed one goal, sure, he'd get a star.

**Avalanche, you will not finish the season too strongly if you keep this up. Love the heart and determination but jeepers creepers, giggy was absolutely outstanding and it's only normal that eventually, your goalies will crash. Sakic needs a veteran blue liner FAST! That being said, good job avalanche.

**What the holyjesus are you pens fans talking about? you can't have a goalie bail you out? You judge that off of one game? Pens 9 games 31 goals.. Avs 9 games 28 goals...? please explain this logic? pens average goals a game 3.4, avs average goals a game 3.1.. talk about sore losers.

**Corsi seems somewhat sound, but he does have his critics. I figure that shots for/against shows who 's offense is playing better and controlling the play. However, this does not account for the goalie, the shot choice, the opponent's defense, or even luck (yes, I did say that). I am not in love with the Corsi number, but it can be an indicator of a team's level of play.

**Shot choice is the killer. You can have a high volume of shots but it may not even matter if they're all unscreened low percentage shots. I didn't watch this game so I can't really evaluate how many actual chances PIT got that the goalie robbed them of, but there are shots and then there are shots.

**Thought the Pens were gonna edge out the Avs in this game, though I was going for the Avs 100%. Watched the game from beginning to end and it was a really good game. I never liked Sidney (mainly cause of the whining) but he is the best player in the entire NHL without question. I'm a big Ovi fan too and love how he throws the hits, but Sidney is a better player overall. Whenever you have a guy stand above all the rest in a professional league, it says a lot. He is unusally great, much like Gretzky & Lemieux were. Anyway, way to go AVS!!!!!!!!!

**If you watched the game you would know why their shot total was so low. Its hard to have a high shot total with 8 PKs. Shot total is pretty worthless anyways, it says nothing on if they were good shots or bad shots raising the total.

**I agree...best player in the world...people can be so strange and petty...like he said after the game, it's an 82 game season, there's going to be nights where you don't play well and win...there's going to nights where you play well and lose...I get a chuckle out of Leafs fans referring to Giguere as an ex-Leafs goalie...priceless...Bobby Orr was the great Chicago Blackkhawks defenceman...yea right

**He turned the puck over to Colorado and then skated off for a change as Colorado scored...not quite playing his heart out. He is an amazing player, but last night was not a good example of what he can really do. The problem is that this shows that he is given credit even when he doesn't have any impact. He was given the star by default., not for his accomplishments on the ice.

**Now I know why everyone likes to beat Pitt; their fans get so angry! Wow. I'll just summarize what the general consensus is from Pens fans: Basically, the Avs are rubbish defensively, Jiggy won the game, Roy is a washed up hack, and they got out shot like crazy. So, I'm going to rub in the fact that the Avs poor play kept Pitt from scoring. Period. zero goals. In, fact, the Avs only needed one goal to win and they scored it with only 14 shots. On Pittsburgh ice, the Colorado Avalanche not only beat Sidney and those other guys out there with Sidney, but they shut them out. This wasn't "edging" the Pens like the fans and commentators say. They shut them out. It's a long season, and both teams may struggle later on. But, in this game, the score was 1-0 for Colorado. Way to go Avs!

**Although I can understand some fans feeling angry cause they got robbed a win if you look at the stats, but your post made me laugh lol SOG don't matter, just the goals.

**Don't forget that the Avs blocked 22 shots - Giguere also had some good defense in front of him. Pittsburgh is a good offensive team and everybody knew that coming in, so the Avs played to their strengths, got the first goal, and then made the Penguins play to their style of game. Plus, there's no excuses for going 0 for 7 on the power play, you deserve to lose if you can't score on 7 power play chances! In the meantime, nice game Penguins and we'll see you again on April 6th. Go Avs Go!

**I actually don't see any angry pens fans except for me when someone used this game as an example of how much better the west is than the east. Nice tirade though. Since you are attacking the pens you should probably end up with +1000

**third star because even though this was his first game without a point this season, he still played like a beast and the only reason he was kept off the board was Varly. 7 shots on net

**To all those people worried about the avs being outshot in games, they've only been trailing what 3 games. a couple minutes to they leafs where they were out shooting them 25-19 after 2, they gave up an early goal to the stars where they out shot the, 10-6 in the first, and the game they lost to detriot, out shot them 13-5 in the second and 17-11 in the 3rd. my point is when they need shots they are getting them, for the part they have been shooting good in the 1st periods establishing leads then they having been playing a smart defensive style when they need to, not giving up to many 2nd chances opportunity's, basically a style that's really gonna complement a good goalie. i would maybe compare it to what St.louis did last year. so i wouldn't get too worried about the shot's they're giving up. had pittsburg scored that goal the 3rd period shots look way different so don't say they game should have been like 5-1 for pitt. the whole style changes with a goal. with that said i don't think anyone expected them to come into Pittsburgh and outshoot them i don't think i would expect any team to do that. It was a hard fought game and minus the penalties i think both teams played the way they wanted and i look forward to seeing the pens come to the Pepsi center

**The West vs East situation is now absurd. Western Conference fans have maintained for years that the West plays better hockey. Sean McIndoe (Down Goes Brown) says it has been this way since at least 2000. Check out his Grantland column from last Friday. Or got to his website downgoesbrown dot com. Actually, all hockey fans should be regular readers of his work. This year, we gave the East one of our better teams (and the best team over the past 20 plus years) plus an up and coming team - and the dominance increased. One argument McIndoe makes which I think has a great deal of validity is that Detroit made all Western teams raise the level of their game. It pains me as a Hawk fan to say that - but the truth is the truth. The Hawks have emulated the Red Wings organization (and now, moved a bit ahead of them) which has led to their success. I wonder if the Wings will have the same effect on the East.

**Did you read last week's "Super 16"? I think you'll find it helpful. Anyway if you did, you know the West has done better against the East in recent years. But, the East has been playing them better every year, and it's too early in the season to make many conclusions, especially since the Wings and Jackets haven't really factored in yet. Put it down to the Metro struggling. Also, posting this after a Penguins loss isn't the greatest example for you, b/c they have a decent record against the West so far.

**I know the Canucks tried to emulate the Wings and it was part of their success in the past. In today's game I think one of the reasons the west is doing so well in the east is the focus on strong defense that has proved to be the killer app in the playoffs. LA's cup was the prime example. Chicago on the other hand has built an offense capable of beating these defense cores. I don't think the strong teams in the east have.

**I still think Colorado will be struggling to make the playoffs at the end of the season. I am not trolling the Avalanche and am willing to change my mind. The Avs success is because of their goaltending and defense. Giguere is 36 years old with a lifetime 2.53 GAA and 0.913 save percentage. This season, he has give up one goal in three games with a 0.981 save percentage. Varlamov is young, a first round pick (26th overall in 2006) and has a 1.68GAA and 0.950 save percentage. I can't see that continuing for either goalie. The Avs are young - which means mistake prone. They will run into a rough patch. It will be interesting to see how they respond. The Avs future looks bright. But is the future now? In any case, great win last night.

**I don't think anyone who really knows about the depth of this team can say they will struggle to make the playoffs (and I know you're not trolling, this is just a counterargument). The Avalanche have one of the deepest group of forwards in the league, even at their young age. Now that they have their defense and goaltending figured out, and knowing they can score through all four lines pretty consistently, this is already a dangerous club. I agree, they are likely to hit some sort of rough patch during the middle of the year, but with Roy as coach, I can't see them moping about those losses at all. He preaches one game at a time, and that's all they've done all season. I think the team is going to end up somewhere around fifth or sixth in the west.

**You forget that the avs have an offensive powerhouse in their first three offensive lines. There has yet to be a game where all three lines contributed. That should scare the heck out of other teams

**Well if you look at there games played they have been mostly out shot by a large difference. Other teams had more time on attack. However their goalies are just keeping them in the running while Roy figures out the rest. I think mid season you will see a much more complete Avs team. They should make the playoffs but prolly not a deep run. I think it will be more of an experience run for the younger guys and the team under the new coach. However the future looks bright and depending how things go could find them contending for the cup really soon. One thing is for sure the new nhl seems to be a lot more unpredictable and we are seeing a lot more teams playing better.