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BOX SCORE
DENVER (AP) -- The Colorado Avalanche have picked the right time for their best stretch of the season.
The Avalanche won for the 10th time in 13 March games Wednesday night, beating the Edmonton Oilers 3-2.
|  | | Colorado's Ray Bourque, left, gets a high five from teammate Milan Hejduk after scoring the game's first goal. |
Eric Messier scored his first goal in 34 games and Joe Sakic extended his point streak to a career-high 14 games with a pair of assists as the Colorado finished the month 10-2-1.
The first-place Avalanche moved six points ahead of the Oilers in the Northwest Division.
"We didn't want to repeat February," said Colorado coach Bob Hartley of the team's 3-7-3 performance. "The trade for Ray Bourque and Dave Andreychuk gave us second life, but we have applied ourselves.
Bourque got his seventh goal since being acquired from Boston and Alex Tanguay added a goal in his first game after missing six with a strained neck for Colorado,
"We're forced to play playoff hockey right now, in March," Sakic said. "We have to get every win we can."
Joe Sakic has 16 goals and 11 assists in his last 14 games.
"I think we just have been playing real confidently now," Sakic said. "For a while there, we were struggling, but we have put a couple of wins together by doing the little things right."
Doug Weight had a goal and an assist and Alexander Selivanov got his second goal in as many games for the Oilers, 3-3-0 in six games. Tommy Salo stopped 17 shots before being replaced by Bill Ranford at the start of the third period.
"This puts a huge damper on our opportunity," Edmonton coach Kevin Lowe said. "We took a foolish penalty on their first goal after we had a good period and then we had a bad line change on their second goal."
Edmonton appeared to have the division race in control on Feb. 29 when the Oilers built a six-point lead. Since then, the Oilers are 4-10-1.
Although outshot 10-9, the Oilers dominated play in the opening period, but trailed 1-0. Edmonton failed to convert two quality scoring chances, Patrick Roy, who had 20 saves in recording his 442nd win, smothered a shot off a faceoff by Ryan Smyth midway through the period. Then Roy made a stick save on Weight on a 3-on-2 break.
Bourque got his 17th goal with two seconds left in the period and Colorado on its second power play. Sakic set up the play with a pass just inside the blue line and Bourque deflected a slap shot off Edmonton left wing Ethan Moreau and past a diving Salo.
The Avalanche extended its lead to 3-0 in the second period on goals by Messier and Tanguay. Messier sent a blast over Salo's right shoulder from the left point at 6:33.
Sakic set up Tanguay's 15th goal at 16:58. After having the puck poked away, Sakic skated down and fed Tanguay with a cross-ice pass to the lower left circle. Tanguay rammed the puck into an open net.
"Joe made the play," Tanguay said. "He made the tremendous pass and I had a wide open net."
Two third-period goals on the power play got the Oilers within 3-2. Selivanov converted a pass from Weight at 6:21, then Weight sent a wrist shot past Roy's glove at 10:23.
"This loss means we can't worry about Colorado anymore," Weight said. "We are playing for our playoff lives right now and over our last five games approach each game like its our last."
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Edmonton Clubhouse
Colorado Clubhouse
In the Corners: Bourque's on-ice impact
Barometer: Western mess
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Dallas 4
Florida 1
Phoenix 3
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Carolina 3
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Detroit 6
Vancouver 3
Montreal 4
Boston 3
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Colorado 3
Edmonton 2
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