Avalanche's Calvin Pickard: Thrives in overtime thriller

Pickard denied 28 of 29 shots for a 2-1 overtime road win over the Hurricanes on Friday.

Analysis:

Pickard deserves plenty of credit for standing tall in this game, but then again, he was aided by his allied skaters winning most of the faceoffs, outshooting the opposition 37 to 29, and committing 11 fewer turnovers. He might also owe Mikko Rantanen dinner for burying the game-winner in the overtime stanza. This quality performance by the Avs put an end to a five-game losing skid, but Colorado's hockey club remains the worst team in the league with a 16-38-2 record to go along with an equally abysmal minus-76 goal differential, making Pickard an undesirable fantasy play on most nights.