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Tuesday, Oct. 5 8:00pm ET
Sakic bats Avalanche past Predators | |||||
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BOX SCORE
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Chris Drury could have been pitching batting practice Tuesday night as far as Joe Sakic was concerned.
Drury sent a waist-high pass to his teammate, and Sakic batted it in on a power play with 5:15 left for Colorado's second goal in a minute as the Avalanche pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators in their season opener. "It was a perfect strike-zone pitch," Sakic said of the pass. "He's a pitcher, so he knows where to put it." Drury was the winning pitcher for Trumbull, Conn., in the 1989 Little League World Series. He said the puck kind of jumped up on him as he passed from near the left post, and he credited Sakic with making a great play to score. The Predators took a 2-1 lead at 13:22 of the third period when Randy Robitaille, MVP of the AHL last season, scored on a rebound of Scott Walker' miss. It lasted 24 seconds until Colorado's Jon Klemm tied the game with a wraparound under Tomas Vokoun's foot off an assist from Stephane Yelle. Sakic gave Colorado its first lead of the game 59 seconds later when he knocked in the puck. "If it was me or one of our players, we miss the puck," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "That's what happens with these special players." The Avalanche, who were winless through the first five games last season, started rusty without Peter Forsberg, last year's leading goal scorer who is sidelined by offseason shoulder surgery, and forward Adam Deadmarsh (hip). For three players, it was their first game with Colorado. "It's important we got off to a good start, especially with a bunch of young kids playing their first game," Colorado's Claude Lemieux said. "We bounced back twice and got the win." Nashville took the first six shots of the game, but the Avalanche finished with 39 shots. Colorado is 13-4-4 in openers, best in the NHL. Goaltender Patrick Roy celebrated his 34th birthday by stopping 29 of 31 shots. "I was very happy to see Jon Klemm's goal," Roy said. "That was huge for us. That was the turning point. Every time they scored a goal we came back right away." Cliff Ronning gave Nashville 1-0 lead at 17:59 when he took a pass from Kimmo Timonen behind the net and scored on a wraparound past Roy's stick. The lead lasted just 41 seconds as Lemieux wristed the puck past Vokoun after Aaron Miller's shot bounced off Alex Tanguay for a 1-1 tie. The point pleased 19-year-old Tanguay, who played the entire game on the left wing of Lemieux and Sakic. "What else can I ask for?" said Tanguay, who was making his NHL debut. Vokoun had the save of the night at 14:53 of the second. His stick got stuck in the boards behind the net, and he skated quickly to the right side of the net and stopped Klemm's shot with his right pad. Vokoun also made a diving glove save of Adam Foote's shot with 6.6 seconds left in the period. It was Foote's 500th NHL game. Nashville defenseman Bob Boughner said it was a disappointing loss. "Momentum-wise, we had it, and we lost it," he said. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Colorado Clubhouse Nashville Clubhouse RECAPS Dallas 3 Detroit 2
Colorado 3 AUDIO/VIDEO   Joe Sakic bats in the Chris Drury pass for the game-winner.avi: 578 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||
