Avalanche center Pierre Turgeon converted the goal-mouth pass from Marek Svatos and scored Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center, and suddenly he was a member of an exclusive club.
This club doesn’t have a brawny doorman, or a password, or even an initiation fee.
Going into what turned out to be the Avalanche’s 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks, only 33 players had scored 500 goals in NHL history.
Colorado captain Joe Sakic was one of them, and when Turgeon became the 34th on the 5-on-3 power play at 9:16 of the third period, Sakic came off the bench to congratulate his veteran teammate – a gesture that under normal circumstances is verboten.
The only surprise was the Avalanche didn’t have permission in advance to empty the bench after Turgeon’s 500th goal, and thus had to play it a bit cautious after he gave the Avalanche a 4-2 lead.
That didn’t bother the 36-year-old Turgeon.
“At that point, I don’t know what happened,” the smiling Turgeon said. “I was just so happy about putting the puck in the net.”
Turgeon, who signed with the Avalanche in the offseason as an unrestricted free agent after three lackluster seasons with the Dallas Stars, scored No. 499 in the Oct. 27 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
“It’s been in my mind for the last couple of games,” said Turgeon, who credited Svatos “with, obviously, a great pass, right between the sticks. I stayed really strong on it and went five-hole. At that point, when you get that pass across, you just try to get the stick on it and hope it goes in.”
What went through his mind?
“Finally,” he said, laughing.
His teammates felt a little bad about not coming off the bench.
“We were going to, but we were worried about getting a penalty,” veteran Avalanche forward Steve Konowalchuk said. “We wanted to, believe me; we were ready to hop, and we were looking at the referee. But he didn’t look at us. We all wanted to. We were halfway over, then thought, ‘Hold on, we better sit back.’
“But I had goose bumps. It was great to see. He was stuck there for a few games, and I know he wasn’t worried, but it still can weigh on your mind.”
Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville, who coached Turgeon for five seasons at St. Louis, said reaching the 500 barrier “represents a great career. Five hundred goals is a special achievement. … He came here with something to prove.”
The victory over the Sharks came in the sixth and last game of the Avalanche’s longest homestand of the season. Colorado (8-4-0-2) finished the homestand with five victories and a shootout loss, collecting 11 of possible 12 points.
Alex Tanguay, who had been battling the flu for several days, scored two goals for the Avalanche, and John-Michael Liles and Svatos also scored for Colorado on a night when it was outplayed much of the game. But the Avs got strong work from goalie David Aebischer.
Aebischer stopped all 18 San Jose shots in the first period, when the Avalanche didn’t play well after scoring twice in the first three minutes. The Swiss goalie, who has a personal six-game winning streak, finished with 31 saves and gave up goals only to Tom Preissing and Jonathan Cheechoo.
Also, Sakic’s assist on the Tanguay goal that gave Colorado a 2-0 lead pushed Sakic into 14th place on the NHL’s all-time points list. He has 1,415 and pulled out of a tie with Doug Gilmour.
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
