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Saturday, February 6, 1999
Roy steals spotlight
Avs bury Wings on record night
The thundering Colorado Avalanche last night extended their winning streak to a franchise-record 11 games with a 3-1 victory over Detroit -- blurring Larry Murphy's date with greatness.
Still, nearly 20,000 Detroit fans here gave Scarborough's Murphy a standing ovation as he became the first defenceman in NHL history to appear in 1,447 games, eclipsing Hall of Famer Tim Horton.
But neither Murphy nor the two-time Stanley Cup champs could solve Patrick Roy, who nailed down his 400th career win in a fairly tame match by these clubs' standards.
"It was good timing (to win here)," said Roy, who remains public enemy No. 1 with many Detroit fans.
Only four goalies -- Terry Sawchuk, Jacques Plante, Tony Esposito and Glenn Hall -- have won more games than Roy, who is a perfect 10-0 in as many starts.
Joe Sakic, with his 10th in 11 games, Adam Deadmarsh and Sylvain Lefebvre scored for the Avs, who closed to within eight points of top-seeded Dallas in the West. Slava Kozlov scored for Detroit.
The Avs' victory streak is the longest since 1992-93, when Pittsburgh won an NHL-record 17 in succession.
Roy's milestone came almost 34 years to the day that Sawchuk backstopped the Maple Leafs to a 5-2 victory in Montreal for his 400th win (Feb. 4, 1965). Sawchuk retired with a league-best 447 wins, a record Roy seems sure to topple.
"For me, it has been a great career," said the three-time Vezina Trophy winner. "I never thought it would happen, that I'd get 400 wins. Now I have a chance to get the record. That will be my objective."
Colorado opened the season with four consecutive losses. It has gone 28-15-3 since.
"The third period was as good as I've seen our team play all year," said rookie coach Bob Hartley. "We really skated, we got some quality scoring chances and we were very strong defensively."
Murphy, 37, suffered a mild concussion Monday against the Devils and almost didn't play last night.
"After what happened in New Jersey (he was knocked unconscious by Krzysztof Oliwa), I viewed the career record as being a lot tougher than before that game," said the former Leaf. "That just shows you --you can't take anything for granted."
With Detroit's Joe Kocur nursing an abdominal strain and Darren McCarty encouraged not to fight, there was only one punch-up: Martin Lapointe pummelled Rene Corbet.
The Avs led 2-1 after two before Lefebvre iced it with his second goal in as many games, after not having scored since March 5, 1997.