Colorado Eagles 3 stars for January

To begin the calendar year the Colorado Eagles have experienced more ups and downs than they had previously but still are in a solid position to make the playoffs currently sitting at third place in the super-sized Pacific Division with a 25-14-3 record. Goal production is not the calling card of this team as they rank middle of the pack in the AHL and as such the 30 points scored by both Jean-Luc Foudy and Charles Hudon share the team lead. Instead, a cohesive team game and good goaltending are what carries the Eagles,

First Star - Jean-Luc Foudy - 34 GP, 11G, 19A, 30P

It is a broken record at this point but Foudy has been consistently impactful in the AHL all season. Just in the month of January alone Foudy produced six goals and 12 points and in fact he did not hit the scoresheet in only three of the 12 games he played during that timeframe. The league finally chose to recognize the Eagles leading scorer and named him to the AHL All-Star game where he will participate in the festivities on February 5-6 in Laval, Québec. Hopefully the Avalanche have plans to recognize Foudy as well with another recall to the NHL.

Second Star - Justus Annunen - 14-7-3, 2.58 GAA, .910 SV%

While his counterpart in net Jonas Johansson earned a star in November, it is now Annunen’s turn to take the spotlight among Colorado Avalanche goaltenders. Although he cooled off a bit to end the month, Annunen had a good January winning five of his nine starts and gave up two or fewer goals over a five-game stretch. He’s clearly improved from last season and is thriving in a tandem with Johansson.

Third Star - Sampo Ranta - 33GP, 7G, 7A, 14P

Quietly Ranta has put together a solid January which even earned him a one-game call up to the Avalanche mid-month. The 14 points he’s produced overall won’t jump off of the boxscore but seven of those were generated in this month which also included a five-game point streak. Ranta has recently found chemistry with Alex Galchenyuk in a second line role after bouncing all over the lineup and his game is trending up at the right time for the player whose ELC will end after this season.