Blake Adds to the Power as Avalanche Wins Again

With the arrival of Rob Blake, Chris Drury lost his place as a point man on the power play.

It didn’t matter as Drury scored twice, once on the power play, and Peter Forsberg had a goal and two assists as the Colorado Avalanche continued their domination of the Minnesota Wild, 4-1, Friday night at Denver.

“I don’t mind a bit to slide down and back to my normal position,” said Drury, who has three goals and six assists in four games. “It helps when you have one of the best all time in Ray Bourque on one side and now getting one of the best shooters in the league in Rob Blake.”

Forsberg continued his hot pace and has five goals and nine assists in his past four games. Joe Sakic, the NHL scoring leader, added a short-handed goal. Blake got an assist in his first game with Colorado since being acquired from the Kings.

“The chemistry felt good,” Blake said. “It is easy to come to a team like this, because all you have to do is fit in. You don’t have to do anything special.”

Patrick Roy stopped 20 shots to improve to 32-9-6. Colorado, which has won three consecutive, had shut out the Wild in the two previous meetings and has outscored them 11-1 this season.

Detroit 4, St. Louis 2--Despite losing Sergei Fedorov because of a broken nose, the Red Wings moved past the Blues into first place in the Central Division and second overall in the Western Conference with a victory at Detroit.

Steve Yzerman had his 13th goal for Detroit midway in the third period. It was the 1,600th point of his 18-season NHL career.

Pittsburgh 6, New York Rangers 4--Alexei Kovalev had his third three-goal game this month during a five-point night and Martin Straka had a goal and three assists at Pittsburgh.

Dallas 5, Boston 4--Joe Nieuwendyk’s goal one minute into overtime at Dallas off a perfect goal-mouth pass from Brenden Morrow kept the Stars unbeaten in their last seven games against the Bruins.

Chicago 1, Atlanta 0--Jocelyn Thibault made 27 saves at Chicago for his sixth shutout of the season and rookie Kyle Calder was the only Blackhawk to score on goaltender Damian Rhodes, who stopped 25 shots.

Carolina 3, New Jersey 2--Shane Willis scored twice, including the winning goal 3:18 into the third period, as the Hurricanes defeated the Devils at Raleigh, N.C.

Washington 3, Montreal 1--The Capitals extended their unbeaten streak to 11 games as Jeff Halpern, Dmitri Khristich and Calle Johansson scored at Washington.

Phoenix 7, Buffalo 3--Jeremy Roenick scored three times, becoming the third U.S.-born player to reach 400 career goals, and Shane Doan had two goals and two assists at Buffalo, N.Y.