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Sunday, December 10, 2000
Avalanche 7 for 8 after win over Florida
Colorado buries Florida, 4-2, as Sakic scores his 16th goal this season
By Mark Long
Associated Press
MIAMI - Joe Sakic had a goal and two assists as the Colorado Avalanche beat Florida 4-2 on Saturday night, winning for the seventh time in their last eight games.
The Panthers, last in the Eastern Conference and tied with Columbus for the fewest points (20) in the league, are winless in their last seven games.
Milan Hejduk, Peter Forsberg and Chris Drury also scored for Colorado, which leads the league with 45 points. Drury added an empty-netter as time expired.
After hitting the cross bar and the post in a scoreless first period, Colorado got a pair of goals in the second.
Hejduk gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead with a soft goal against Roberto Luongo. Hejduk, scoring his 14th goal of the season, spun in the crease and flipped a shot that bounced off the back of Panthers defender Robert Svehla and trickled past Luongo.
Sakic's 16th goal made it 2-0 about seven minutes later. Hejduk found Sakic streaking across the blue line, and Sakic - the league's third-leading scorer - beat Luongo from just inside the right circle. Sakic has 43 points.
The Panthers cut the lead in half with a power-play goal in the second. Greg Adams' backhander from the crease beat Patrick Roy to the upper left corner of the net.
Roy stopped 17 shots.
Mike Sillinger's fourth goal - coming on another power play - was the equalizer for Florida, but Forsberg put the Avalanche back in front for good 47 seconds later.
AT THRASHERS 5, ISLANDERS 2: Donald Audette had three goals and an assist for his third career four-point game as the Atlanta Thrashers beat the New York Islanders 5-2 on Saturday night.
The Thrashers won for the fifth time in six games.
Andrew Brunette scored for the Thrashers, and Tomi Kallio added an empty-net goal with 16.8 seconds left. Goalie Milan Hnilicka stopped 31 shots.
Garry Galley and Mark Parrish had power-play goals for New York. John Vanbiesbrouck started for the Islanders and stopped seven shots. Wade Flaherty relieved, stopped 12 shots and took the loss.
The loss snapped a modest three-game unbeaten streak for New York (1-1-2). The Islanders have lost three home games to the Thrashers.
Audette opened the scoring at 4:32 of the first period on a power-play. Audette worked a give-and-go with Ray Ferraro, and tapped in a shot from the left side of the crease.
The goal marked the sixth straight game the Thrashers scored the first goal.
Audette made it 2-0 at 13:39 on a short-handed breakaway. He unleashed a slap shot from between the hash marks that bounced in off the crossbar.
That was it for Vanbiesbrouck. Flaherty entered the game and stopped the only shot he faced the rest of the period.
In the second period, Audette and Brunette worked a 2-on-1 break. Audette carried the puck down the right side, sent a cross-ice pass to Brunette, who scored over a sliding Flaherty at 2:22.
New York scored a power-play goal at 11:14 when Galley scooped up the rebound of a shot by Anders Myrvold and beat Hnilicka.
Audette completed his fourth career hat trick and second this season 80 seconds into the final period when he fanned on a shot which got behind defenseman Kevin Haller. Audette picked up the puck and sent a backhand off the crossbar.
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