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  Saturday, Jan. 15 8:30pm ET
Avs too much for 'Hawks at home
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

DENVER (AP) -- Deprived of their star forward, the Colorado Avalanche turned to rookie Alex Tanguay for leadership.

Tanguay broke a tie with a power-play goal early in the third period and later assisted on an insurance goal, and the Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 Saturday night.

Colorado remained unbeaten in its last eight home games (7-0-1) despite losing Peter Forsberg to an injury. Forsberg bruised the back of his right knee in the second period and did not return.

Forsberg was felled by a slash by Dave Manson, but no penalty was called.

"Peter is a superstar, everybody knows that," Tanguay said. "He's very important to our hockey team. Everybody wanted to step up because Peter was out."

Avalanche coach Bob Hartley was angry about the lack of a call on Forsberg's injury.

"It's the same referee (Brad Watson) that let (Colorado's Sandis) Ozolinsh get slashed earlier in the year by (the Islanders') Claude Lapointe," Hartley said. "We're trying to promote our game, but we're losing our best players to cheap shots when the puck isn't even around."

Patrick Roy posted 27 saves to earn career victory No. 429. He trails only Terry Sawchuk (447) and Jacques Plante (434) on the NHL career list.

Jocelyn Thibault had 25 saves for the Blackhawks, whose season-high three-game winning streak came to an end.

At 4:31 of the third, Colorado's Dave Reid kept the puck alive in front of the goal and Tanguay's shot deflected off the skate of Chicago's Eric Daze into the net.

"It was a great pass," Tanguay said. "I just threw it in front and it went off his skate and went in."

Thibault said Tanguay's go-ahead goal came on "a lucky bounce for them. It was tough because we battled hard all night. Losing on a lucky goal shouldn't happen."

Chicago associate coach Lorne Molleken was upset about an interference call against Bryan McCabe which preceded Tanguay's goal.

"I thought there was only one referee on the ice," Molleken said. "That call on McCabe was a junior call. That was terrible, the way Reid went down. McCabe put his stick down and Reid skated right into it."

Moments later, Roy, helped by trailing defenseman Adam Foote, stopped Tony Amonte on a breakaway. Roy had several more solid saves before Reid scored into an empty net at 19:51 on an assist from Tanguay, who had just emerged from the penalty box.

Chicago was 0-for-6 on the power play.

"We're doing a good job killing penalties," Roy said. "That was the key for us tonight."

Forsberg's seventh goal -- just 28 seconds into the game -- was the only score in the first period. Joe Sakic passed from the left side to Forsberg, whose shot from just inside the right circle struck Thibault's right pad and trickled into the goal.

Forsberg extended his point streak to a league-high and career-best 11 games, and Sakic ran his own stretch to nine games.

Colorado had a 12-6 edge in shots in the first, but Chicago reversed it in the second, when Jean-Pierre Dumont tied it at 3:20 on his ninth goal. Dumont knocked in a rebound of a shot from the left circle by Josef Marha.

Chicago's Ed Olczyk limped to the locker room with an injury in the first period, and both Forsberg and Chicago's Alexei Zhamnov departed in the second. Olczyk, with an ankle injury, and Zhamnov, who hurt his hamstring, returned to the ice only briefly.

Colorado defenseman Alexei Gusarov was serving the first game of a two-game suspension for cross-checking Pittsburgh's Matthew Barnaby on Thursday night.

 


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RECAPS
NY Rangers 5
NY Islanders 2

Calgary 4
Toronto 0

Boston 2
Montreal 2

New Jersey 4
Philadelphia 1

Nashville 4
Pittsburgh 2

Florida 5
Tampa Bay 2

Colorado 3
Chicago 1

Phoenix 4
Anaheim 2

Dallas 2
Vancouver 1

San Jose 3
Los Angeles 2

AUDIO/VIDEO
video
 Dave Reid scores on the "empty-netter" for Colorado.
avi: 980 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1

 Alex Tanguay scores on the power play for the Avs.
avi: 643 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1

 Jean-Pierre Dumont scores on the slap shot for the Blackhawks.
avi: 778 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1