Sabres foil Avs' rally

2 late Buffalo scores ruin a three-goal Colorado comeback

Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 5, 2005 at midnight

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After the Colorado Avalanche spent such a big chunk of November on the road, it was appropriate that John Sebastian's Welcome Back was played to the crowd Sunday night at the Pepsi Center.

But the Buffalo Sabres had a completely different kind of greeting for the Avalanche - four first-period goals to chase goalie David Aebischer.

The Avalanche rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie it on Marek Svatos' third-period penalty shot and seemed to have all the momentum but wound up on the losing end of a 6-4 decision.

Derek Roy, with his second goal this season, converted on a power play with 2 minutes, 27 seconds remaining and former Avalanche forward Chris Drury scored into an empty net with 3.5 seconds to play.

"It's tough, because I thought we had it after we got it back to 4-4," Avalanche captain Joe Sakic said. "We had a couple chances to go ahead and we just didn't capitalize. We got a late penalty and they scored."

The Sabres only needed 20 seconds to go ahead after Antti Laaksonen was sent to the penalty box for hooking Tim Connolly with 2:47 to play.

"We shouldn't have been in that spot to begin with," Laaksonen said. "It's my fault that we lost. I'll take the blame for it."

Roy put a rebound behind goalie Peter Budaj, who replaced Aebischer to start the second period, for his first goal in 11 games.

"It was a rebound, and not in a very good spot," said Budaj, who faced 13 shots after relieving Aebischer. "Unfortunately, the guy was just driving the net and he got the puck right on his stick. I didn't have time to recover, and the puck just trickled in."

Aebischer, making his fifth consecutive start, allowed four goals on 16 shots in the first period.

"I'm just not happy with the way I played," he said. "Four (goals) in a period is way too much."

The Avalanche's inability to get consistent goaltending for more than relatively brief stretches has to be of concern, but it would have helped if the team had played even mediocre defense in the opening period.

The Sabres converted two two-on-ones, including one by Jochen Hecht while short-handed at 14:25 that broke a 1-1 tie.

Paul Gaustad also scored on a two-on-one rush, and Mike Grier was all alone at the edge of the crease when he cashed in Hecht's pass after Avalanche defenseman Brett Clark wasn't able to control the puck.

Jason Pominville scored the other first-period goal for Buffalo, beating Aebischer with a shot from the right circle that should have been stopped.

"It shouldn't have went in," Aebischer said.

The Avalanche got a goal from Karlis Skrastins, his second this season, before the Sabres responded with three in a row.

"We had a tough start, but we battled back," Sakic said. "They had just gotten blown out (5-0 by San Jose on Friday). They were hungry and we were a little sloppy. They had way too many odd-man rushes on our turnovers."

Rob Blake's power-play goal with 2 minutes left in the second period drew the Avalanche to 4-2. The goal came on the Avalanche's fifth man advantage of the game and ended a 1-for-22 drought over parts of four games.

Alex Tanguay completed a nifty passing play with Sakic and Milan Hejduk at 6:49 of the third period and Svatos put a back-hander between Biron's pads at 8:51 on the penalty shot after he was hauled to the ice by Brian Campbell on a breakaway.

"It got us back into the game," Svatos said. "Then they scored a goal. Lucky for them."

Drury, who had a goal wiped out at 11:47 of the third period when it was ruled he flipped the puck into the net with his glove, admitted to being concerned after Svatos scored.

"They have got some serious firepower," Drury said. "We had to kill so many penalties and that just gives them so much momentum. We did a good job killing them, but it gives them some legs and some life. It gives Joe and Alex and Milan a chance to touch the puck and get confidence and get going, and it showed.

"That was a big goal by our power play (unit), though. That was huge."

For the Avalanche, it was just a tough loss.

"We did a nice job getting ourselves back in there," Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville said. "When we got to 4-4, we got a couple great chances right after that to get to five. Certainly we would have liked to get to overtime, that's for sure."

First period - 1, Buf, Gaustad 5 (Thorburn, McKee), 2:45. 2, Col, Skrastins 2 (Sakic, Hejduk), 11:46. 3, Buf, Hecht 6 (Connolly, Tallinder), 14:25 (sh). 4, Buf, Pominville 2 (Connolly), 17:05. 5, Buf, Grier 3 (Hecht), 18:46. Penalties - Thorburn, Buf, major (fighting), 2:47; McCormick, Col, major (fighting), 2:47; Mair, Buf, minor-major (roughing, fighting), 6:07; Hinote, Col, major (fighting), 6:07; Lydman, Buf (delay of game), 12:32.

Second period - 6, Col, Blake 6 (Liles, Hejduk), 18:00 (pp). Penalties - Kotalik, Buf (delay of game), 6:21; Svatos, Col, (high-sticking), 7:16; Afinogenov, Buf (tripping), 14:16; Campbell, Buf (hooking), 17:45.

Third period - 7, Col, Tanguay 10 (Sakic, Hejduk), 6:49. 8, Col, Svatos 13 (penalty shot), 8:51. 9, Buf, Roy 2 (Pominville, Vanek), 17:33 (pp). 10, Buf, Drury 8 (Numminen), 19:56 (en). Penalties - Drury, Buf (holding), 11:47; Laaksonen, Col, (hooking), 17:13.

Shots - Buf 16-6-8 - 30. Col 9-6-14 - 29. Power plays - Buf 1 of 2; Col 1 of 6. Goalies - Buf, Biron 10-4-1 (29 shots-25 saves). Col, Aebischer (16 shots-12 saves), Budaj 3-4-3 (0:00 second, 13 shots-12 saves). A - 18,007 (18,007). T - 2:15. Referees - Blaine Angus, Bill McCreary. Linesmen - Andy McElman, Mark Wheler.

sadowskir@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2587

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