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Riding the Zamboni - Thursday, December 30th (late edition)

leightoncomesbackdec30

James O’Brien

For recaps of Thursday’s first four games, click here. Now let’s take a look at the two games that went beyond our bed times.

Colorado 4, Edmonton 3 (SO)

Something had to give with these two teams, as each club was on a losing streak. The Avalanche broke their three-game skid while they extended the Oilers slump to five consecutive games with a shootout win. It didn’t come easily, though.

The Avs built a three goal lead with goals by T.J. Galiardi, Paul Stastny and Tomas Fleischmann. Edmonton began their comeback with a Taylor Hall goal in the second period and then tied it up in the third thanks to tallies by Ales Hemsky and Andrew Cogliano. Milan Hejduk ended up being the only guy who scored in the shootout to win for Colorado, as Craig Anderson outlasted Devan Dubnyk.

Edmonton is firmly behind Calgary for last place in the West while Colorado still trails Vancouver in the Northwest by four points. The Avalanche would be the fifth seed if the playoffs started today.

Philadelphia 7, Los Angeles 4

After getting dismantled by the Vancouver Canucks on 6-2 on Tuesday, the Flyers redeemed themselves via a dominant performance against the Kings. Mike Richards and his teammates made things relatively easy for Michael Leighton (32 out of 36 saves) during the goalie’s first game back from injury. Richards scored two goals and two assists, matching the Kings’ offensive output in his own production.

Claude Giroux scored two goals while Ryan Smyth provided two assists a game in which both Jonathans (Quick and Bernier) appeared in the contest for Los Angeles.

As of today, Philadelphia would be fourth in the East (trailing the Penguins by two points and two wins with two games in hand) and L.A. would be fourth in the West (trailing the Stars by three points with one game in hand). If that held true, we’d see Washington-Philadelphia and Colorado-Los Angeles in the first round of the playoffs. Sign us up for that.