Philadelphia – There was great drama at the Wachovia Center on Saturday, and not just because of the presence of Sylvester Stallone.
The main characters in a cliffhanger of an ending were Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic and Alex Tanguay – which used to guarantee a happy roll of the credits for the Avalanche. But with Forsberg now with the Philadelphia Flyers, the ending was nearly an unhappy one for the Avs. Thanks to Tanguay, who scored the game-winner on a pass attempt, Colorado escaped with a 4-3 overtime victory.
It was the Avalanche’s seventh victory in a row.
“NBC got their money’s worth on that one, eh?” said Avs defenseman Rob Blake, noting the network’s telecast of the game, its first NHL regular-season contest since 1975.
Tanguay’s power-play goal with 46 seconds left in overtime made up for the Avs blowing a 3-1 lead with less than three minutes left in regulation. Just when it was looking like a 60-minute show of virtual domination by a stifling Avalanche defense, Forsberg took center stage.
The former Avs star set up Mike Knuble’s power-play goal with 2:46 left to make it 3-2 and scored the tying goal with 1:12 left. Forsberg’s assist was his 800th career point. If any team should have known not to leave Forsberg unchecked by the side of the net in the final minute, it was the Avalanche. That was the situation when Forsberg grabbed a loose puck after linemate Simon Gagne’s shot and lifted it over goalie David Aebischer as the crowd went wild.
“Yeah, he’s not bad,” said Avs winger Milan Hejduk, who had two assists.
Forsberg called the first game against the Avs “a little different.”
“But as soon as the game started, I didn’t care,” Forsberg said.
About his tying goal, he said, “Simon shot it, and it got right over his pads. It felt good.”
The Avalanche outshot the Flyers 9-0 in overtime, thanks to penalties on the Flyers’ Kim Johnsson and Mike Rathje. The Avs had a two-man advantage for 39 seconds after Rathje’s hook of Sakic, but failed to score on Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki.
But Philadelphia couldn’t clear the puck after getting Johnsson back. Twice the Flyers had the puck on their sticks with easy-looking clears, but put them right to Avs players. The last mistake proved crucial. Johnsson’s clear-out attempt was intercepted by Tanguay, who skated and put a puck on net that was intended as a pass to Andrew Brunette down low. Instead, the puck slithered into the net.
“We had some chances on the 5-on-3, and it seemed like nothing wanted to go in,” Tanguay said. “I just passed the puck hard, and fortunately it went in for me. We’ll take the two points.”
Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock was upset at the call on Rathje.
“It was a dive,” Hitchcock said of Sakic. “Everyone on the ice knew it; their bench knew it, our players knew it. He grabbed (Rathje’s) stick, hooked it under his body and went down.”
Forsberg disagreed.
“Joe’s not a diver,” he said.
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
