Forsberg Falls, Avalanche Wins

Peter Forsberg scored the winning goal while falling on his back and Patrick Roy stopped 31 shots in the Colorado Avalanche’s 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders at Uniondale, N.Y.

Forsberg’s eighth goal of the season came at 5:51 of the third period. Chasing a loose puck, Forsberg and New York defenseman Rich Pilon were slowed by goalie Tommy Salo, who came 20 feet out of his net to play the puck. Salo missed the puck and Forsberg managed to backhand it into the vacated net as he was falling.

“I think it was just a misunderstanding by those guys,” Forsberg said. “It looked like Tommy was going to play it, and he didn’t. I just got past Pilon and managed to put it in the open net. They had bad luck like we were having in the beginning [of the season].”

Pilon acknowledged that he didn’t expect Salo to come out of his net.

“It was a miscommunication between Tommy and I,” Pilon said. “I knew the puck was going towards the corner. I was watching Forsberg and had it in my mind to play the puck. I looked up and Tommy was right there.”

Cam Russell also scored for Colorado, which won its fourth consecutive game and eighth in a row over the Islanders.

Mariusz Czerkawski scored for the Islanders, who have lost six in a row and nine of their last 11.

Ottawa 4, Tampa Bay 2--Shawn McEachern had two goals and an assist at Tampa, Fla., to lead the Senators past the Lightning.

The Senators outshot Tampa Bay, 44-19, in going five games over .500 for only the fourth time in team history. Ottawa is 11-3-3 in its last 17 road games, and the Lightning has lost 11 of 12, including six straight at home.

Detroit 3, Chicago 2--Steve Yzerman had two assists to lead the Red Wings to a victory at Detroit that snapped the Blackhawks’ three-game winning streak.

Philadelphia 5, New Jersey 5--Rod Brind’Amour scored with 3:45 left in the third period as the Flyers forged a tie at East Rutherford, N.J..

Brind’Amour’s goal capped a third-period rally that wiped out a 5-3 Devil lead.

Nashville 3, Edmonton 3--Cliff Ronning and Sergei Krivokrasov scored 20 seconds apart in the closing minutes at Nashville to help the Predators snap a three-game losing streak.

Buffalo 2, St. Louis 2--Curtis Brown scored both goals to back Dominik Hasek’s goaltending as the Sabres earned a tie at St. Louis.

Hasek, the NHL player of the week last week, stopped 17 shots in the first period alone in helping keep the Sabres’ five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1) alive.