"The Avs' new saying after a victory this season? "It's T-shirt time," bellowed Avalanche winger Chris Stewart after Colorado's 4-3 overtime victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at a sold-out Pepsi Center on Thursday night. The Avs' kid generation knows that T-shirt reference from watching a lot of "Jersey Shore" on MTV. The Avs won this one largely through the help of the kids, on goals by Stewart, Matt Duchene and two by Paul Stastny, including the OT winner, a shot that snuck over the goal line behind new Blackhawks goalie Marty Turco. "You don't have to get up when it's the home opener and you're playing against the Blackhawks," Stastny said. "They got a power-play goal and tied it there, and then (goalie Craig Anderson) made some unbelievable saves to still give us a chance to win." After a roughly 20-minute pregame ceremony honoring the Avs' 1995-96 Stanley Cup-winning team, the puck dropped, and it wasn't five minutes before the current champs, the Blackhawks, got on the scoreboard. Left wing Bryan Bickell made it 1-0 with a power-play goal at 4:37, wristing a shot past Anderson from the near side after a crossing pass from Marian Hossa. Though Hossa would score himself late in the second period, Colorado got three goals in between. The first, by Stewart, was a beauty. He came down the left side, deked his man out of the way and beat a committed Turco to tie it 1-1 at 16:30. Stewart didn't get a point in five preseason games, but his play Thursday quickly put aside any worries of a slump when it counted. He added an assist to Stastny's power-play goal, at 13:51 of the second period, and had five shots on goal through the first two periods. Stastny's goal made it 3-1, coming a few minutes after Duchene got his first of the year, a tip of an Adam Foote drive. The Avs had the crowd rocking by that point, with calls of "Turr-coo" starting." Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_16278799
