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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Patrick Roy can't seem to
lose. Felix Potvin can't seem to win.
|  | | Patrick Roy makes one of his 19 saves Thursday, which marked his 446th career win. |
Roy stopped 19 shots and won for the 446th time in his career, leaving him one victory behind Terry Sawchuk for the NHL career
record as the Colorado Avalanche beat Potvin and the Canucks 5-2
Thursday night to stay unbeaten (2-0-2).
The Colorado goalie will have a chance to tie Sawchuk's mark on
Saturday in the home opener against the expansion Columbus Blue
Jackets.
"It's a great chance to do it at home," Roy said. "At the
beginning of the year we all talked about playing well defensively
and that's what we have done on our four games on the road.
"We have to keep working on these things. Consistency is
important for us."
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Roy's milestone wins
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Win
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Date
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Score
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100
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3/18/89
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Montreal 7, Pittsburgh 2
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200
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10/31/92
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Montreal 4,
Rangers 3
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300
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2/19/96
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Colorado 7,
Edmonton 5
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400
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2/5/99
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Colorado 3,
Detroit 1
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Things aren't going nearly as well for Potvin, who surrendered
goals on Colorado's first three shots. After allowing nine goals in
just under five periods of play during his first two starts, Potvin
looked shaky again -- stopping just 18 of 23 Avalanche shots.
"It's a tough way to start a game," Potvin said. "You can't
give up three goals to those guys. You're not feeling good anytime
you give up three like this but you can't bury your head down. You
just have to keep going."
Roy entered with a 1.26 goals-against average and .944 save
percentage. He's a big reason the Avalanche have given up just six
goals in four games.
"Patrick is giving us the big saves and the five guys in front
of him are taking care of the rebounds and the shooting lanes,"
Colorado coach Bob Hartley said. "We've seen some real good team
effort throughout the first four games."
Milan Hejduk scored his first two goals of the season for the
Avalanche.
Hejduk opened the scoring 3:29 in when Potvin got caught chasing
Alex Tanguay -- and the puck -- behind the net. Tanguay centered to
Hejduk, who deposited the puck into an empty net.
Markus Naslund responded for Vancouver at 4:38, but Hejduk
restored the Avalanche lead for good at 5:03 with a high wrist shot
from a bad angle that beat Potvin on the glove side.
Adam Deadmarsh made it 3-1 midway through the first period, when
he converted a Joe Sakic drop pass with a one-timer that beat
Potvin high on the glove side from 20 feet out.
"It was a tough break for sure," Markus Naslund said of the
early goals. "But you have to bounce back and rebound and show
what we're made of because it was early in the game and we had a
whole game to get back."
Chris Drury converted a 5-on-3 power play at 10:03 of the second
period and Stephane Yelle scored short handed 2:42 into the third
to round out the Colorado scoring. Adam Foote and Joe Sakic each
had two assists for Colorado.
"I can see he puck better," Potvin said. "I just can't stop
it good right now but I'm sure it will come around."
Yelle has points in all four games, recording one goal and three
assists.
Naslund completed the scoring with his second goal of the game,
on the power play, midway through the third period.<
"They were a lot better today, there's no doubt about that, but
we can play a lot better than this too," Naslund said. "We can
play with Colorado, but we've got to perform better than we did
tonight."
Game notes
Vancouver Center Andrew Cassels, on a power-play unit with
Swedish players Mattias Ohlund, Markus Naslund and Sedin twins,
Daniel and Henrik, has earned the nickname "Casselsson." ... The
Avalanche completed a season-opening four-game road trip 2-0-2. ...
The Sedins along with captain Markus Naslund and Colorado superstar
Peter Forsberg grew up in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden. ... Roy assisted on
Yelle's goal. ... Vancouver tough guy Donald Brashear had his first
fight of the season when he squared off with Scott Parker in the
third period. He later fought Greg de Vries.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Colorado Clubhouse
Vancouver Clubhouse
Who was Terry Sawchuk?
RECAPS
Dallas 4
Philadelphia 1
Detroit 4
Chicago 0
Columbus 3
Calgary 2
Colorado 5
Vancouver 2
San Jose 2
Phoenix 1
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