Ducks Tie Colorado as Sakic Gets 50th Goal

The Mighty Ducks were a sideshow to the Colorado Avalanche’s main event in a 1-1 tie Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center before a crowd of 18,007.

Paul Kariya, one of the Ducks’ lone bright spots, put his team ahead at 19:23 of the first period, but the Avalanche devoted the remainder of the game to the pursuit of personal milestones.

While Colorado teammate Joe Sakic got his 50th goal at 16:28 of the second period, goalie Patrick Roy remained tantalizingly close to another individual benchmark.

Sakic’s short-handed goal kept him in contention for the NHL scoring title, but Roy remained one victory short of his first career 40-win season as the Avalanche played its first game since clinching home-ice through the playoffs.

Because Roy is scheduled to start only one more game before the playoffs begin next week, the Avalanche pulled him from the net with 21.4 seconds left in overtime in the hope that the extra attacker would lead to a Colorado victory.

The ploy nearly backfired as a long shot by Duck forward Jeff Friesen hit the right post with four seconds remaining.

“The players wanted that one for Patrick and we tried our best,” Colorado Coach Bob Hartley said. “Patrick made the call. Patrick said he wanted to go for it, and we tried. It created some excitement in the building and everybody understood our reasoning behind the decision.”

With nothing on the line, Duck defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky supplied one of the most exciting moments at 6:36 into the third period when he shattered a panel of glass with a slap shot into the zone from center ice. “First time I’ve broken one,” Tverdovsky said. “It was probably broken before. . . . I just hit the right spot. I don’t think I have a heavy shot.”