St. Louis – After skating in the warm-up Saturday night in the Savvis Center, Milan Hejduk was scratched from the Avalanche lineup because of the flu.
And for a while, the Avs played as if they all would be feeling sick by the end of the night – sick for letting a chance to gain two points in the Western Conference playoff race get away.
After falling behind by two goals, the Avs rallied for a 3-2 overtime victory over the bedraggled St. Louis Blues, ending it with Joe Sakic’s goal on a rare overtime power play.
The Blues’ Christian Backman drew a suspect hooking call 35 seconds into the OT. With the Avalanche on the 4-on-3 power play, Sakic’s shot from the right-wing circle beat St. Louis goalie Patrick Lalime only 22 seconds later.
“I gave it to (Rob Blake), and I actually thought he was going to shoot,” Sakic said. “I think so did they, because they moved over and left me open. He made a perfect pass. I didn’t get everything on it, but it was in the right spot.”
Playing his seventh consecutive game since David Aebischer’s trade to Montreal, Colorado goalie Peter Budaj had 26 saves, and he almost certainly will be back in the net tonight when the Avs face the Edmonton Oilers at the Pepsi Center.
The two points against the Blues moved the Avalanche to within one of the idle first- place Calgary Flames in the Northwest Division. Anaheim’s victory at Phoenix kept the Mighty Ducks in the conference’s No. 5 playoff spot, also one point ahead of No. 6 Colorado.
Hejduk’s absence Saturday night came with the Avalanche already without its leading goal-scorer, Marek Svatos, done for the season with a fractured shoulder, and its leading point producer, Alex Tanguay, out for at least another week with a sprained knee.
As a result, the Avalanche didn’t have any healthy scratches against the Blues, and Bob Boughner was back in the lineup as the fourth-line right winger as Colorado coach Joel Quenneville was left scrambling, even using Sakic and Pierre Turgeon on the same line for much of the night.
“The most important thing is that we found a way to win,” Sakic said.
Colorado did it after former Avalanche winger Scott Young and Petr Cajanek got power- play goals for the Blues, giving St. Louis the 2-0 lead after 25 minutes. Young’s came on a two-man advantage, and Cajanek got credit for a goal when his centering attempt to Keith Tkachuk, who was barreling down the slot, went off the skate of Avs defenseman Patrice Brisebois and past Budaj.
Colorado had to kill another 5-on-3 at the start of the third period. Andrew Brunette was called for hooking at 19:47 of the second and Brett Clark was called for holding the stick at 19:59, and Quenneville was so incensed with the second call he drew an abuse-of-officials minor. That all meant the Avs had to get through the 5-on-3, then a conventional two- minute disadvantage, and the Blues got only two shots on Budaj in the four minutes.
By then, the Avs had pulled into a 2-2 tie on the strength of goals by Turgeon – he got to the puck after Lalime couldn’t control Sakic’s shot – and Jim Dowd. The goal not only was Dowd’s first as a member of the Avalanche, it came with the Avs skating shorthanded. Dowd took a whack at the puck down low on the kill, and it caromed off St. Louis defenseman Dennis Wideman and in.
“Trailing 2-0, we found a way to get ourselves back in the game,” Quenneville said. “Turgeon scoring ignited the offense, and the shorthanded goal was tremendous for us. But (the Blues) played hard….and we were fortunate to come out on top.”
