March 24, 2010 - Kings at Avalanche

I had been looking forward to shooting the Kings, since they are having a pretty good year and didn't visit Denver up to this point. I focused on star Anze Kopitar (looking like Darth Vader with those dark circles around his creepy eyes) and former Av Ryan Smyth (below). Both players are having good years.


Los Angeles Kings left wing Ryan Smyth (94) attempts to wrap the puck past Colorado Avalanche center Ryan O'Reilly (37) as goalie Craig Anderson (41) minds the net during a regular season game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Los Angeles Kings at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.


The Av's had a nice 3-1 lead going into the 3rd period, but of course played only defense for the final period of regulation and gave up the tying goal with only a few minutes left in regulation. It almost seemed like both teams wanted to go to a shootout, and the Av's won by shutting down both Kopitar and Smyth while the Av's Peter Mueller and Chris Stewart each scored.

March 17, 2010 - Flames at Avalanche

That stung a little. Av's couldn't recover from 2-0 first period despite a 6-on-5 goal with less than 30 seconds to go. Flames are a bubble team so they may have wanted this one worse. On top of them having lost the previous 4 matchups this season.

Flames defenseman Mark Giordano had a blast from around the face off circle that took him off his skates, making for a unique shot. No goal, but this guy seemed dangerous this game.



Anderson looks frustrated as winger Peter Mueller hangs his head.

March 11, 2010 - Panthers at Avalanche

Not the most inspired effort I've seen (read: yawn) but the Avalanche pulled off a 3-0 shutout of MVP goalie Craig Anderson's former team.

The high moment of the first was a nice little fight at center ice between Cody McLoed and Gregory Campbell of the Panthers.

Colorado Avalanche left wing Cody McLeod (55) and Florida Panthers center Gregory Campbell (11) fight during the first period.

It was Anderson's first effort against the team that let him walk as a free agent after the 2008-09 season. He shut them out for his 7th of the season. As of Thursday, this tied for the NHL lead as of last week. He's since been passed by Brzgolov of the Coyotes, who now has 8.


Colorado Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson (41) works against his former team during a regular season game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Florida Panthers at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche shut out the Panthers 3-0. Anderson earned his NHL-leading (tied) seventh shutout.

March 9, 2010 - Sportsshooter.com update - Halfpipe Images - Check it out!

Quarterly (or so) Sportsshooter.com page update features some of my favorites from three days on the ice at Copper Mountain for the USASA Snowboard series. As I've mentioned - thise are shots for the riders, and prints, coffee mugs, and tons more available through VAST Action.

March 6, 2010 - Blues at Avalanche

Nice easy win for the Av's, led by a Chris Stewart hat trick. None of the goals happened in front of me, but I found some nice celebration.

Anderson faced the greater number of shots, and stopped enough to earn the win. Here he gets a nice little congratulations tap by Stewart, who was not only the star of the game, but earned the honor of being named the NHL star of the week. Nice.

I also liked this shot of the bench celebrating a Milan Hejduk goal. He had two as well - in his first game back for the team.

March 7, 2010 - USASA Halfpipe Competition at Copper Mountain

Another day at the pipe. I am happy with the results.


March 7, 2010 USASA Snowboard Halfpipe comp at Copper Mountain - Images by Dustin Bradford

To purchase prints or what have you, visit www.vastaction.com

March 1, 2010 - Red Wings at Avalanche

These arch-rivals' 2nd meeting in Denver this year, and this time the Red Wings fans walked out happy. And there were a lot of them.

Av's held their own, particularly in the 2nd period where they came back from a 2-0 deficit. This breakaway by Yip ended with him shooting from his knee and not finding a way around Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard.



Ultimately, the visitors prevailed. Here's a clean image of future Hall-of-Famer Niklas Lidstrom celebrating the game-winner, a power play goal about halfway through the third period. You don't see hockey players smile too much, and with Detroit on the bubble to make a playoff spot this year, these guys are truly happy for every goal and point they can get.



Tough loss for the Av's, but they followed it up with a couple of moves at the trade deadline and a nice win in Anaheim on March 3.